[NYTr] Uribe Blames FARC for Deaths of 11 Hostages;
 
Date: Fri, 29 Jun 2007 01:56:52 -0400

Via NY Transfer News Collective  *  All the News that Doesn't Fit
 
[From the Times and the Post we get the Romero-Forero twins. Forero,
late the Venezuela corespondent for the Times, when he almost
always had to report from Colombia, is at least this time has a 
Colombia dateline. The Times's Romero is reporting from Caracas. Uribe
is denying there was a military attack. Maybe paramilitaries, then, or
US mercs or advisers. Who would you believe, FARC or Uribe? -NYTr]


Prensa Latina, Havana
http://www.plenglish.com

Uribe Accuses FARC of Killing Deputies

Bogota, Jun 28 (Prensa Latina) The Alvaro Uribe government accused the
Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces on Thursday of killing 11 deputies
abducted by that organization, which reported their deaths.

After an extraordinary Council of Ministers, President Alvaro Uribe
read a communiqué in which he said that "the release of the abductees
was a priority" for the government.

The Joint Western Command of the FARC said on June 18 that the
deputies, all Assembly members in the department of Valle, "were killed
in a cross fire when an unidentified military group" attacked the camp
where they were held.

According to the communiqué from the government, the deputies' families
were not informed about a possible rescue, because no operation was
underway, as the parliamentarians' whereabouts was unknown.

After listing the combats reported by the Ministry of Defense during
those days, Uribe said that no cross fire between the army and the
guerrillas was reported, adding that the government has not received
information about a possible combat in which 11 people were killed.

He asked the international community for support to retrieve the bodies
and if they were found, the government would request advice from an
international forensic commission to explain the circumstances of their
deaths to the world.

The deaths of Deputies Juan Carlos Narvaez, Jairo Hoyos, Alberto
Quintero, Edison Perez, Hector Arizmendi, Javier Giraldo, Ramiro
Echeverri, Rufino Varela, Carlos Charry, Carlos Barragan and Nacianceno
Orozco shook the country.

The communiqué from the guerrillas warned that "the crazy intransigency
of President Uribe to agree on a humanitarian exchange and his strategy
of military rescue above any other consideration" lead to such
tragedies.

hr jg rc

PL-47

                               ***

The New York Times - Jun 29, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/29/world/americas/29colombia.html

Colombian Rebels Blamed for Hostage Deaths

By SIMON ROMERO

CARACAS, Venezuela, June 28 � President Álvaro Uribe of Coloombia lashed
out at the country’s largest guerrilla group on Thursday, accusing it
of killing 11 kidnapped lawmakers after the guerrillas said the
hostages died in cross-fire during a military attack this month.

The guerrilla group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or
FARC, said Thursday that the killings took place June 18 at an
undisclosed camp. The report complicates recent efforts to thaw
relations between the rebels and Colombia’s government, which have
fought for four decades.

“This unfortunate reminder shows that the war is still very much
alive,” said Carlos Eduardo Jaramillo, a former negotiator for
Colombia’s government with rebel groups. “Blame for the killings will
be allotted to the FARC, as well as the government for its reluctance
to cede to the guerrillas’ demands.”

Mr. Uribe said no rescue attempt had been made, despite the rebels’
claim that the lawmakers were killed during an attack by an
“unidentified military group.” He has previously called on the army to
rescue the dozens of prominent captives held for many years by the
rebels.

Relatives of the lawmakers made emotional statements from Cali,
claiming Mr. Uribe’s refusal to accede to the rebels’ demand for a
demilitarized zone for a prisoner exchange had only contributed to the
reported deaths, though no evidence of the killings had been produced.

“His old problems with the FARC did not allow him to act like a
statesman,” said Vicente Pérez, the brother of one hostage reported
dead, Edison Pérez Núñez, in a reference to Mr. Uribe, whose father was
killed by the rebels in a botched kidnap attempt in 1983.

“We have our hearts destroyed,” Mr. Pérez said in a telephone interview
from Cali. “This is unimaginable.”

In a live televised address, Mr. Uribe called for a hardening of policy
toward the rebels, apparently a shift after the recent release of
dozens of imprisoned guerrillas, including Rodrigo Granda, a senior
rebel official captured in Caracas in 2004, in hopes that the rebels
would reciprocate.

Calling the FARC “terrorists,” Mr. Uribe said his government would not
accept “blackmail” or a demilitarized zone for the guerrillas, even
though a similar area was established for demobilized paramilitary
fighters as part of an earlier effort to end widespread killing by them.

The rebels kidnapped the lawmakers from southwestern Valle del Cauca
Province in a daylight operation in 2002 by posing as an army bomb
squad and driving off into the mountains with the captives on a stolen
bus. The rebels said Thursday that just one of the lawmakers, Sigifredo
López Tobón, was still alive.

The rebels also hold three American military contractors, taken
prisoner after their plane crash-landed in a guerrilla stronghold in
2003, as well as Ingrid Betancourt, a former presidential candidate,
who holds French citizenship, and her assistant, Clara Rojas. The
rebels killed 10 hostages in 2003 after a failed rescue attempt by the
Colombian military.

The communiqué issued by the rebels about the killings, dated June 23,
fueled questions as to the veracity of the report. Saying military
intelligence officers had not known the captives’ location, Mr. Uribe
said no rescue attempt could have been made.

Mr. Uribe, speaking on television before flying to Cali to meet with
the victims’ grieving relatives, said that the lawmakers must have been
killed “vilely” by the rebels.

Political analysts also questioned whether resurgent paramilitary
groups might have had a hand in trying to rescue the lawmakers.

[Jenny Carolina González contributed reporting from Bogotá.]

Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

                            ***


The Washington Post - Jun 29, 2007
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/28/AR2007062802490.html

Colombian Leader Says Rebels Killed 11 Civilian Hostages

By Juan Forero
Washington Post Foreign Service

BOGOTA, Colombia, June 28 -- President Álvaro Uribe on Thursday accused
Colombia's largest rebel group of killing 11 civilian hostages, just
hours after the guerrillas implied that a botched military rescue
operation was to blame for the deaths.

The reported deaths of the civilians, all of them Colombian lawmakers
from Valle del Cauca state, could not be confirmed. Still, the news --
widely regarded as true -- touched off a day of mourning across this
Andean country and shook the relatives of other hostages, some of whom
live as far away as the United States and France. Those families, as
well as several European governments, led by French President Nicolas
Sarkozy, have recently pressured Colombia to reach an accord with
guerrilla commanders that would lead to the release of dozens of
captives.

"When I heard this, all I could do was cry," said Jo Rosano, mother of
Marc Gonsalves, one of three U.S. Defense Department contractors held
by the rebels since 2003. "I put myself in the families' shoes -- oh,
dear God. I cry along with them, that's what I do."

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, which seized the
politicians in 2002 in Valle del Cauca's provincial capitol building in
Cali, said in a statement earlier Thursday that the 11 politicians had
died on June 18. It said the deaths took place when "an unidentified
military group" attacked the jungle camp where they were being held.
But the FARC, as the rebel group is known, did not reveal the location
of the camp or exactly how the deaths occurred.

The rebels said one kidnapped lawmaker, Sigifredo Lopez, survived
because he had been in another camp. They also said that they would do
what they could to arrange for relatives to retrieve the bodies of
their loved ones.

Uribe said that no military operations took place on June 18 in the
regions where the government believes the hostages were being held, and
that none was planned. Uribe also said that since 2003, when guerrillas
killed a kidnapped governor and nine other captives who were about to
be rescued by troops, the government has made it a policy to alert
families about planned rescue operations.

"The government accuses the FARC terrorist group of the murder of the
lawmakers from Valle del Cauca, whose deaths were reported by the same
criminal organization," said Uribe, who was visibly pained as he spoke.
"The assassination of all the hostages, except for one outside the
group, shows a criminal premeditation while they want to say it was due
to a crossfire with the military, a crossfire that never existed."

The developments left families in Cali, the city where relatives of the
victims live, anguished.

"After so much pain and so much suffering, I just want for them to give
us the bodies of our relatives," Fabiola Perdomo, the unofficial
spokeswoman for the families, told reporters. "We want this to end."

Another relative, Consuelo Arizmendi, wife of Hector Arizmendi, who is
among those believed slain, said that "the sorrow is enormous."

"You can't take this," she said. "I want to think it's a lie, that God
will show us another reality. It is not easy."

In the statement, the guerrillas blamed the "demented intransigence" of
Uribe, accusing his government of failing to move on an accord to
demilitarize two towns near Cali for talks. But a high-ranking
Colombian official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the
delicate nature of the issue, said in an interview last week that the
government had earlier this year been prepared to demilitarize a town
in southern Tolima province when the FARC broke off preliminary talks
for unknown reasons.

Just this month, Uribe had begun unilaterally releasing dozens of
rebels from jail to encourage the guerrilla group to enter talks. The
FARC rejected the gesture.

In Washington, which has provided Uribe's government with billions in
military and anti-drug aid, State Department spokesman Tom Casey blamed
the FARC for the slayings. "The people that are responsible for the
deaths of these individuals are those that took them hostage," Casey
said.

Uribe said that there would be no demilitarized zone and that no more
guerrillas would be freed. "The government doesn't accept blackmail,"
he said.

But France's government, which has lobbied for the release of hostage
Ingrid Betancourt, an author and politician with Colombian and French
citizenship, said on Thursday that Uribe's government should abstain
from using force to release the hostages. Although an accord leading to
the release of hostages appeared as unlikely as ever, analysts said
Uribe's government still has no other practical option if his
government wants to secure their liberation.

"There'll be a lot of tough talk for now, but ultimately they're going
to realize that there's no other choice," said Adam Isacson, an analyst
who tracks Colombian military issues for the Center for International
Policy in Washington. "This is a boost for the Sarkozy and Spanish and
Swiss positions, the three countries pushing for a negotiated way out
of this."

The FARC, which has been fighting the state since 1964, has kidnapped
thousands of Colombians and foreigners over the years, mostly for
ransom.

During their captivity, the Valle del Cauca lawmakers had been able to
tape proof-of-life videos, which were given to the news media and
relatives. In the last video, issued in April, one hostage after
another pleaded with the government to meet FARC demands.

"Why not, Mr. President?" said Juan Carlos Narváez, one of the
lawmakers who is now believed dead. "It's the lives of your countrymen."

                          ***

AP via Internatinal Herald Tribune - Jun 29, 2007
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/06/29/america/LA-GEN-Colombia-Hostages.php

Colombian president accuses FARC of killing 11 hostage lawmakers, 
denies military operation

The Associated Press

BOGOTA, Colombia: President Alvaro Uribe accused Colombian rebels of
killing 11 state lawmakers in cold blood, appealing to Colombians on
live television after the guerrillas said the hostages died in the
crossfire of a military attack.

Uribe denied on Thursday that a rescue attempt was made for the
hostages. He said there were no such military operations on June 18,
the date the FARC said the attack occurred, in zones where the hostages
are thought to have been held.

The news highlights the precarious state of the more than 3,000 people
held in captivity by various Colombian armed factions, including three
U.S. defense contractors seized four years ago by the hemisphere's
oldest and most potent insurgency.

"The FARC wants to blame these deaths on the armed forces," said Uribe,
whose father was killed by the rebel band two decades ago. "The FARC
wants to hide this crime against humanity that it committed."

The FARC statement, e-mailed to news organizations including The
Associated Press, said 11 of the 12 ex-provincial deputies were killed
in the crossfire after an "unidentified military group" attacked a
rebel camp. The statement said the 12th lawmaker, Sigifredo Lopez, was
not with the others at the time.

There was no way to independently confirm the claim.

With the announcements, hopes dimmed for a prisoner swap with leftist
rebels.

Earlier this month Uribe agreed to free the highest ranking FARC rebel
held in prison and 150 FARC guerrillas in a "gesture of good faith."

But rebels rejected the move, demanding the temporary demilitarization
of a zone near Cali for a complete swap of all FARC prisoners for the
hostages, something Uribe has ruled out.

"I'm totally lost; we don't know what we're going to do," a crying
Fabiola Perdomo, wife of one of those reported dead, said by telephone.

Jo Rosano, the mother of kidnapped U.S. contractor Marc Gonsalves,
expressed exasperation with Uribe.

"I don't trust that man one bit," she told the AP by telephone from
Connecticut. "If we're close to any type of humanitarian exchange, it's
sabotaged."

Although the deaths remained unconfirmed, Colombians turned somber as
talk shifted Thursday from whether the deputies were actually killed to
how the bodies would be recovered.

Tearful listeners phoned radio stations, offering solidarity with the
hostages' families. TV networks broadcast video of the April 2002
daylight raid in which guerrillas dressed as soldiers seized the
lawmakers from the Valle del Cauca state assembly building in the
western city of Cali.

"To the families of the dead deputies, we offer our deepest
condolences. We will do all in our power to help them recover the
remains as soon as possible," the FARC statement said, adding that
there had been an increase in military operations in the unidentified
zone where the hostages were held. "It was always our priority to keep
them safe in the middle of continual rescue missions,"

U.S. State Department spokesman Tom Casey condemned the rebels: "The
people that are responsible for the deaths of these individuals are
those who took them hostage."

The 12 deputies are among 60 prominent hostages held by the FARC, along
with former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt � a cause ceelebre
in France where she also is a citizen.

The FARC, a 43-year-old largely peasant army that demands a more
equitable distribution of the country's wealth, wants to exchange them
for all its imprisoned fighters.

In his speech, Uribe reminded Colombians of his administration's
policy: that the families of hostages are to be notified in advance of
any planned rescue mission.

"We have told France and the U.S. that in the event the location is
determined of Betancourt or the three Americans, we will inform that
government and we will listen to what they have to say," he said.

Over the years, the families of the 12 kidnapped deputies have
pressured the government for a prisoner swap and criticized military
rescues, fearing their loved ones would be killed.

In May 2003, an attempted military rescue ended in bloodshed. Hearing
the approaching helicopters, FARC rebels killed 10 hostages, including
a former defense minister and governor.

A sister of one of the deputies presumed dead was in a meeting Thursday
with the European Union Council of Ministers in Brussels requesting
support for negotiations when she received the news.

Anger among anti-kidnapping campaigners fell on both the guerrillas and
the government for failing to reach an agreement.

"It has been five years of struggles, hopes, strength and patience on
the part of the families of the deputies, but the government and the
FARC have responded with laziness and a lack of humanity," said the
Pais Libre foundation, which assists families of kidnap victims.
       
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