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                                ...complaints from the community indicate
                                that a group of at least 200 paramilitares
                                abandoned yesterday at five o'clock in the
                                morning the urban center of Murindo, after
                                staying there for ten days, during which
                                time the medical staff of the hospital was
                                obligated to attend to a great number of
                                injured.
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EL ESPECTADOR  (Bogota)

Tuesday, 9 June 1998


                The CICR traveled yesterday to Murindo
                --------------------------------------

        By Elizabeth Yarce Or.


MEDELLIN -- A special commission of the International Committee of the
International Red Cross (CICR) traveled yesterday to the municipality of
Murindo (on the Atrato river in Antioquia), in order to fan out today
throughout the county to verify the accusations of peasants and indigenous
people that a group of paramilitaries invaded some areas and murdered at
least 40 persons.

Simultaneously, a monitoring commission composed by delegates of the
Government of Antioquia, the Defensoria of the People, the Office of the
Prosecutor and the district attorney's office, traveled yesterday to
Murindo to determine the number of dead, but could not confirm the
accusations as it only reached the urban center of the municipality, where
the Army maintains control of the situation.

The delegate of the office of the Prosecutor, that is part of the
delegation, assured El Espectador that complaints from the community
indicate that a group of at least 200 paramilitares abandoned yesterday at
five o'clock in the morning the urban center of Murindo, after staying
there for ten days, during which time the medical staff of the hospital
was obligated to attend to a great number of injured.

It was added that the Army only arrived at the zone at ten o'clock in the
morning to retake control of the territory.

The commission, headed by the secretary of Government Nestor Hincapie
Vargas, was dispatched to the region at 2:30 in the afternoon. However,
due to the floods in the veredas of La Isla, El Canal, Guacas and Bartolo,
that make up part of the sector known as Old Murindo, the delegates could
not arrive to the place of the events, nor has the Army or the media.

In this regard, the indigenous parliamentarian Eulalia Yagari requested
the intervention of the international community to solve the difficult
problem of public order, and denounced that at least 40 persons may have
died in the rural zones of Murindo.

She revealed that 500 persons among the indigenous and black population
were forcefully displaced toward the vereda of La Isla.

Eulalia Yagari heads --along with Gerardo Jumi, president of the
Organization Indigenous of Antioquia (HEARD)-- the neutral commission 
that
plans to be dispatched to the place where the events have transpired, and
has requested of the armed actors respect of their lives.