SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE

Monday, 19 July 1998


                Atrocities reported up in Colombia
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BOGOTA -- Human rights violations have soared to unparalleled levels in
Colombia and President Ernesto Samper's "weak" administration has broken
every promise it made to rein in the abuses, Amnesty International said
yesterday.

Susan Lee, Colombia researcher for the London-based rights group, said all
sides in the country's long-running conflict were committing atrocities
against the civilian population.

But the group said one of the most alarming trends was the growth of the
right-wing "paramilitary machinery," which Lee said was operating with the
assistance of the armed forces.

"Human rights violations have got much worse under Samper and this
administration has failed in every policy area where it committed itself
to action," Lee told reporters at briefing in Bogota yesterday. Late last
year, Samper, who leaves office on Aug. 7, made a high-profile pledge to
destroy the burgeoning ultra-right death squads, vowing to chase them "to
hell and back."

But the human rights group said he had done nothing to track down the top
paramilitary chieftains and even less to dismantle the groups, which are
now estimated to number 4,000 combatants and are blamed for a wave of
massacres of unarmed civilians.

Samper's rule was severely weakened by accusations that he bankrolled his
1994 election campaign with donations from the notorious Cali drug mob.
Colombia's main guerrilla armies and the nationwide paramilitary alliance,
known as the United Self-Defense Force of Colombia, have all offered to
take part in peace talks with incoming president Andres Pastrana. Most of
the preliminary talks have so far focused on the need to "humanize" the
war, which has claimed more than 35,000 lives in the last 10 years alone.

Colombia's estimated 20,000 leftist guerrillas have seen their political
and military power surge during Samper's four-year term.

In parallel, right-wing extremists have stepped up their attacks on
civilians whom they accuse of collaborating with their guerrilla enemies.
Yesterday, Marxist guerrillas clashed with security forces in simultaneous
attacks near the towns of Puerto Tejada, Sibera and Cardona. In all,
rebels killed two policemen, two soldiers and wounding at least five
others, Colombian authorities said. There were no reports on possible
rebel injuries.