{"article":{"id":17501,"heading":"GROWING CRITICISM OF URIBE'S POLICIES","author":"ANNCOL","created":"2002-07-05 07:13:44","modified":"2002-07-05 15:08:29","last_modified":"Fri, 05 Jul 2002 22:08:29","article":"

(By Alfredo Castro, ANNCOL Colombia) The United States should not support a scheme announced by president-elect Alvaro Uribe Velez to set up civilian militia units in Colombia according to a recent statement by the Washington-based Center for International Policy (CIP). According to the CIP Uribe set up similar units whilst governor of Antioquia department in the mid-90s and they \"committed serious abuses and routinely collaborated with -- or were even absorbed by -- Colombia's murderous paramilitary groups.\"

CIP also expressed concern at Uribe's attitude to the paramilitaries themselves who, they say, \"are responsible for the majority of non-combatant killings and benefit too frequently from the armed forces' toleration.\" In particular CIP say, \"We remain puzzled by reports that paramilitary units gathered voters in neighbourhoods and villages throughout the country and urged them to choose Mr. Uribe.\"

According to the organisation some of the policies that Uribe wants to impose on Colombia have been tried in the past and \"brought a sharp rise in politically motivated murders, disappearances and torture\".

Another Washington-based rights group Human Rights Watch (HRW) recently drew attention to the fact that Uribe kept as a \"close advisor\" the retired army general Rito Alejo del Rio who is proven to have worked closely with paramilitary death squads over a period of years. According to HRW del Rio was banned from entering the US due to his involvement in both terrorism and drug trafficking and the two men have worked closely together ever since the mid-90s when both were based in Antioquia department during an upsurge in death squad activity in the region.

Both HRW and CIP express revulsion at Uribe and his nominee for the post of interior minister, Fernando Londono, for their participation in a dinner in honour of General del Rio and his colleague General Fernando Millan who has also been proven to work with paramilitary death squads. Apparently Uribe described these two murderous brutes as \"Colombian heroes\".



<\/p>\n","contact":"anncol@redaccion.com","link":"http:\/\/www.anncol.com\/index-english.htm","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/plain","summary":"Two Washington-based organisations have expressed grave concern at the policies of newly elected Colombian president, Alvaro Uribe Velez. Human Rights Watch has also drawn attention to some of Uribe's criminal friends.","numcomment":0,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/","filesize":null,"article_url":"\/news\/2002\/07\/17501.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[]}