WAVE OF CIVIL-WAR VIOLENCE GROWING ACROSS COLOMBIA

Right-Wing Militia Accused Of Killing 24; Toll In Massacres Hits 49

BOGOTA, Colombia -- Right-wing paramilitary fighters pulled unarmed people
off buses and out of their homes in a southern village, killing at least 24
men after accusing them of aiding leftist rebels, authorities said Thursday.

The massacre was one of several attacks and slayings around the country
this week, most of them blamed on the outlawed paramilitary troops known as
the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, or AUC.

A wave of bloodshed has claimed at least 49 lives, including four soldiers
and the mayor of a town. Twelve other people are missing and feared dead.

Despite President Andres Pastrana's efforts to negotiate an end to the
37-year civil war, violence has been escalating across this South American
country.

The worst massacre took place Wednesday in Buga, an agricultural village
160 miles southwest of Bogota. Authorities have found the bodies of 24 men,
and six others are feared dead.

"They took the people out of two buses and from their homes," Buga Mayor
John Jairo Bohorquez told Caracol radio. "They separated the women, old
people and children, and then killed the men."

Mr. Bohorquez said members of the right-wing militia shot each of the men
in the head after accusing them of aiding leftist rebels.

Luz Mary Carmona said her son was home visiting when he was killed. She's
planning to leave the village, as are many others. "Life is over here," she
said.

Last year, 317,375 Colombians fled their homes, the majority of them
because of massacres, according to the Human Rights and Displacement Council.

Also Thursday, police said the mayor of a small southern town was killed
along with his driver and three other people, apparently by paramilitary
fighters. The killing Thursday of Cartagena del Chaira Mayor Luis Elias
Marin happened near the town of Montanitas, on the edge of a haven the
government granted to the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia,
or FARC, almost three years ago.

Paramilitary troops also have been blamed for the slaying of six fishermen
whose bodies were found Wednesday; an attack on an army patrol the same day
that left four soldiers and a right-wing paramilitary fighter dead; and the
assassinations of two congressmen and a union leader in the last week.

Gunmen also killed three counternarcotics police and three civilians near
the Caribbean Sea, police said Thursday.