GUNMEN 'DANCED, DRANK' WHILE TORTURING VILLAGERS

Witnesses Recount Massacre In Colombia

BOGOTA (Reuters) - Ultra-right gunmen danced and drank as they tortured and
beheaded at least 28 villagers on a table set up on a basketball court
during a four-day raid in northern Colombia last week, according to
investigators.

Details of the brutal massacre only began to filter out this week as
civilian authorities reached the community in Bolivar province, a region
hotly disputed by right-wing paramilitary gangs and Marxist guerrillas.

In its hunt for suspected communist sympathizers, the 200-man death squad
murdered one of its victims in a church in El Salado village, said Pablo
Elias Gonzalez, lead investigator with the Chief Prosecutor's Office.

Military officials said they had been unable to enter the village between
last Wednesday and Saturday, alleging paramilitary fighters were locked in
combat with rival guerrillas.

But Gonzalez dismissed reports of the battle and said all the dead were
civilians.

"(The paramilitary gunmen) danced, drank and massacred people, even killing
one in the church," Gonzalez told reporters Tuesday after gathering witness
statements.

"They killed others on the basket ball court and there was even a table
where these people were sacrificed. They were tortured and then beheaded,"
he added. He said investigators were still trying to identify the victims.

Gonzalez's comments coincided with the start of a visit to Colombia by
White House anti-drug director U.S. Barry McCaffrey, who will spell out
Washington's proposed package of $1.6 billion (U.S.) in mostly military aid
to fight drug trafficking and guerrillas.

International human rights groups, including Americas Watch and Amnesty
International, say the U.S. aid will inflame Colombia's long-running civil
conflict that has claimed more than 35,000 lives in the last 10 years.

"As long as Colombian paramilitary groups allied with the Colombian Army
continue to commit massacres and other serious human rights violations,
U.S. military aid is tantamount to underwriting the Colombian 'dirty war,'
" Amnesty said in a statement last month.

In a separate incident overnight Tuesday, three civilians, including a
10-year-old boy, died when Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC)
rebels attacked a police station in the town of Doncello, in southern
Caqueta province.