COLOMBIA'S MILITARY IS BLAMED IN '98 MASSACRE

SARAVENA, Colombia-At an emotional ceremony, representatives of a
Chicago-based human-rights tribunal blamed the Colombian military for
a 1998 massacre at a nearby hamlet that left 17 civilians dead.

The tribunal is urging the United States government to reconsider its
$1.3 billion anti-narcotics aid package to this beleaguered country.

The unveiling on Tuesday of the unofficial tribunal's yearlong
investigation of the massacre came days before the State Department,
under provisions attached by Congress to the aid package, is required
to certify that Colombia is complying with six human-rights
requirements before any more funds are disbursed.

Otherwise, President Clinton will have to sign a waiver to free up the
next chunk of the $800 million yet to be spent.

Clinton already signed a waiver in September, after the State
Department found that the Colombian government met only one of the six
human-rights conditions.

A State Department official predicted that Colombia's human rights
profile is not likely to improve much in the upcoming review, making a
second presidential waiver necessary.

The official added that given Colombia's chaotic internal situation,
it is unlikely ever to meet Congress' "sweeping" human-rights
requirements, and that additional waivers will have to be issued to
keep U.S. aid flowing throughout the expected three-year life of Plan
Colombia.

The human-rights panel from Chicago, however, recommended that the
U.S. cut off any assistance to the military units involved in the
massacre, in accordance with the 1997 Leahy Amendment-which bans
American assistance to foreign military units guilty of human-rights
violations-and the provisions of the Colombia aid package.

The human-rights tribunal, organized by the Center for International
Human Rights of the Northwestern University law school, has no
official status or legal authority to enforce its recommendations. In
fact, the government of Colombia refused to defend itself, saying the
tribunal had no jurisdiction in a domestic incident.

Douglass Cassel, director of the center, said he hopes the group's
investigations and findings would pressure the government of Colombia
to prosecute similar cases more forcefully and to focus public and
congressional attention in the U.S. on the human-rights crisis in Colombia.

Santo Domingo, where the massacre occurred, is about 25 miles from
Saravena, deep in northeastern Colombia and 2 miles from the border
with Venezuela. This area is one of many stages upon which the
protagonists in Colombia's 40-year civil war-two guerrilla groups, the
armed forces and several vigilante paramilitary units-wage their battles.

Civilians often are the victims in the seemingly endless
killing.

On Dec. 13, 1998, the residents of Santo Domingo, which has only about
50 houses, was holding a street party, according to Olimpo Cardenas, a
30-year-old ranch hand.

Cardenas recalled that at about 10 a.m. six helicopters and a small
plane swooped over the town, and that a bomb fell as the residents ran
for cover.

According to investigations by the Chicago human-rights panel, the FBI
and Colombian officials, the device was a cluster bomb, dropped from a
U.S.-made helicopter used by Colombia's air force.

The bomb, which upon impact splits into six smaller bomblets that spew
shrapnel over a large area, killed 17 villagers, including six
children, and injured 25. Among the victims were Cardenas' 7-year-old
twins, one of whom, a girl, was killed instantly. Her brother survived
serious shrapnel cuts and other injuries.

The evidence points to either criminality or gross miscalculation by
the Colombian military.

In a lengthy statement Wednesday, the Colombian air force chief, Gen.
Hector Fabio Velasco, disputed findings that a cluster bomb was
responsible for the deaths. He blamed a truck bomb, likely set by
guerrillas, for the blast.

Official probes so far have yielded a thicket of contradictory reports
but no prosecutions.

Colombia's Atty. Gen. Jaime Bernal Cuellar said Tuesday that his
office had amassed enough evidence to charge the crew of the
helicopter and an air force captain with the killings.

A spokesman for Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.), who recently toured
Colombia and vehemently opposes the aid package, said the senator
would like to hold hearings on human rights and U.S. involvement in
Colombia.