RIGHTS REPORT BLAMES PARAMILITARY FORCES IN COLOMBIA VIOLENCE

BOGOTA, Colombia -- As gruesome and dependent on army officers'
connivance as it was, the ravaging of the town of Mapiripan was unique
only in the size of the operation and the logistics involved, a report
by a human rights group says.

Right-wing paramilitary troops arrived on a charter flight at San Jose
del Guaviare airport, which shares an airstrip with a U.S.-financed
anti-narcotics base. Colombian soldiers usually record the arrivals,
but that day they waved the visitors through, said the report, by
Human Rights Watch/Americas. The study catalogs the massacre at
Mapiripan, in July 1997, and dozens of other incidents.

After having passed several checkpoints unimpeded, the paramilitary
forces reached Mapiripan, torturing and killing at least 14 peasants
accused of organizing protests against the aerial spraying of drug
crops, witnesses told government investigators.

Two men were decapitated, their heads kicked like soccer balls down
the street, the report says. The body of another was hanged and
quartered. A local judge who called the military base and police
station at San Jose eight times for help during the five-day siege was
ignored.

Soon after the action, residents fled, joining 1.2 million refugees
from the longest-running guerrilla war in Latin America.

The wide-ranging report issued in Bogota says the violence once
largely committed by the military has been taken over by right-wing
paramilitary forces. But the ties between the two are so close that
they may as well be one, the report says.

"Although the government and Colombia's military leaders deny that
they promote or even tolerate paramilitaries, abundant evidence is
consistent and terrifying," said the 222-page report, which was issued
here a few days ago.

Two civilians and two army officers have been arrested for the
massacre, though witnesses said 200 people carried out the attack.

The report also details torture, murder and mutilation by the three
leftist rebel groups. Like the military and the paramilitary forces,
the rebels unilaterally designate civilians as "military objectives,"
the report said, and commit most kidnappings. Last year the conflict
killed 2,183 people, including rebels, soldiers and civilians.

The report was issued as the United States kick-starts military aid,
which it cut severely in 1994 over human rights concerns, and as a new
president, Andres Pastrana, prepares for talks with the rebels.

The chief of military forces, Gen. Fernando Tapias, said the military
had no policy of violating human rights and that it was committed to
prosecuting cases of collusion with paramilitary forces.

The human rights report details many examples of army connivance with
paramilitary death squads and of top army commanders, including Gen.
Manuel Jose Bonett, former chief of the combined armed forces,
thwarting investigations.

"The army's use and tolerance of paramilitaries has not reduced the
overall number of violations recorded in Colombia or their effect,"
the report said. "Yet it has allowed high-ranking officers to claim
that soldiers are directly implicated in fewer abuses than in years
past."

Bonett did not answer repeated requests for comment.

The government says it is trying to stamp out the paramilitary groups.
In December 1996 it announced a $1 million reward for the capture of
the top paramilitary leader, Carlos Castano, who says he has army
protection.

Checked-by: Rich O'Grady