UN condemns Colombia for Human Rights

The United Nations Human Rights Commissioner, Mary Robinson, has condemned the rising number of massacres and disappearances, and the growth of paramilitary forces in Colombia.

In her annual human rights report to the UN Commission of Human Rights in Geneva, Mrs Robinson criticised the Colombian government for its failure to fight the paramilitaries.

She described as alarming, the apparent links between paramilitary groups and members of the armed forces.

The Colombian vice-president, Gustavo Bell, replied that the report failed to understand the complexity of the armed conflict in Colombia, which has claimed an estimated thirty-five-thousand lives in the past decade.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service