Paramilitaries get free pass, critics contend (Colombia)

[Judi Lynn]

Dispute over disarmament


Paramilitaries get free pass, critics contend

By Juan Forero
The New York Times
Posted August 14 2005


BOGOTA · When a new law governing the demobilization of Colombia's main paramilitary coalition was approved in June, victims rights organizations and some members of the U.S. Congress strongly objected, saying the legislation would be too soft on the group, which is blacklisted by the State Department as a terrorist organization.

Now, a study by the advocacy group Human Rights Watch magnifies those concerns.

Basing research on interviews with disarmed fighters and Colombian high authorities, the report details what it calls serious flaws in the demobilization process, which is now governed by the Justice and Peace law.

Most glaring, the report says, is that members of the paramilitary coalition, the United Self-Defense Forces, representing 15,000 fighters, are not being asked for specific information as they disarm, further cloaking the atrocities attributable to their groups or the finances and other inner workings of the organization.
(snip/...)

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/caribbean/sfl-hcolompara14aug14,0,4403885.story?coll=sfla-news-caribbean

[wli]

1. US-sponsored death squads getting away with it again?

I forget which side these freaks were on.

[struggle4progress]

2. kick