Colombian Air Force Chief Quits (Firing on Civilians in 98)

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-colomb26aug26,1,1039691.story?coll=la-home-leftrail

The head of the Colombian air force resigned Monday after growing pressure from the U.S. State Department and startling new evidence suggesting that Colombian pilots knowingly fired on civilians in a 1998 bombing raid directed by private American contractors that left 18 people dead.

Government officials confirmed late Monday that President Alvaro Uribe had accepted the resignation of Gen. Hector Fabio Velasco but denied that the move had anything to do with the bombing in the small town of Santo Domingo, which occurred after a Colombian army unit came under fire from leftist rebels in the area.Velasco "has been saying for some time that he wanted to resign for personal reasons," presidential spokesman Ricardo Galan said. "This time it went through."

The Santo Domingo incident has become one of the country's most notorious human rights cases and the biggest obstacle in relations between the United States and Colombia, normally close allies.

--snip--

Velasco's resignation was also apparently speeded by the appearance of a previously undisclosed portion of a videotape of the operation in which the two U.S. contractors on board a plane directing the operation could be heard screaming at Colombian helicopter pilots to stop firing at civilians fleeing the town soon after the bombing took place.

--snip--

"This is shooting at civilians," says one contractor, who is trying to guide the operation. He switches suddenly to Spanish: "Stop shooting! Stop shooting!"

"There are children in this bunch!" says the other contractor, who is scanning the fleeing civilians with a video camera.