Massacres shake Colombia peace deal

FARC had agreed to stop random kidnappings

In Colombia, over 40 people have been killed in recent attacks by right-wing paramilitaries and Marxist guerrillas.

The worst killings took place in a village in the southern province of Cauca River valley, where paramilitaries of the United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC) shot dead at least 17 men.

This could really be the end of the negotiation process

Eduardo Cifuentes
Human Rights Ombudsman

In Santa Marta, on the Caribbean coast, the bodies of six kidnapped fishermen were discovered, all of them with gunshot wounds.

And two policemen recently taken in a mass kidnapping by guerrillas of the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) have also been killed.

Killed in front of families

General Fernando Tapias, commander of Colombia's armed forces, said that 17 people were confirmed dead in attacks in the village of Buga in the Cauca River valley.

But witnesses and local reporters say that as many as 30 were killed, with many of the men being shot in front of their families.

The paramilitary AUC had previously killed civilians whom they suspected of aiding leftist rebels who have been waging a 37-year war against the Colombian state.

Since the beginning of July, 303 people have been killed as a result of Colombia's continuing violence, the Defence Ministry said.

Of those 199 are thought to have been killed by the AUC. The US Government, which is providing millions of dollars in military aid to the Colombian Government, recently added the AUC to its list of terrorist organisations.

Fragile agreement

There are fears that the killings of two policemen kidnapped by FARC members could destroy the fragile agreement signed last Friday in which the FARC's rebel leaders agreed to stop their practice of random kidnappings on highways.

"This could really be the end of the negotiation process," said Eduardo Cifuentes, the government's Human Rights Ombudsman.

Colombian Government forces have been fighting both leftist guerrillas, such as the FARC, and right-wing paramilitaries, for decades in the country's civil war.

The government has been negotiating with the FARC since late 1998 to end the violence, but the talks have failed to yield any substantial results.

So far this year over 1,000 people have been murdered by paramilitary death squads.