JANUARY HUMAN RIGHTS UPDATE

UNCLAS BOGOTA 000400 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PHUM PGOV KJUS CO SUBJECT: JANUARY HUMAN RIGHTS UPDATE REF: BOGOTA 291 SUMMARY -------------- ¶1. (U) Prosecutors continued to order arrests of soldiers suspected of participating in extrajudicial executions. The Prosecutor General's Office (Fiscalia) charged 10 soldiers for the 2005 massacre of eight San Jose de Apartado Peace Community members. The Defense Ministry dismissed eleven members of the La Popa Battalion of the 10th Armored Brigade, citing command and control issues. The FARC set off a bomb outside a Bogota Blockbuster, killing two, and attacked the police station in the town of Roberto Popayan (Narino), killing six civilians. Captured FARC members told a local human rights group that the FARC has murdered perhaps as many as 200 of its "economic" hostages. Extradited former-AUC leader Jorge 40, and a lieutenant still at large, were accused of the 2001 deaths of two Drummond union leaders. End Summary EJES: MORE ARRESTS AND DISMISSALS -------------- ¶2. (U) The Prosecutor General's office (Fiscalia) charged 10 soldiers with homicide for the February 21, 2005 massacre of eight members of the San Jose de Apartado Peace Community in Uraba (Antioquia). The Fiscalia indicated that members of the 47th Infantry Battalion of the 17th Brigade colluded with former-AUC leader Diego Murillo Bejarano's (Don Berna) "Heros de Tolova" block to combat the FARC in the area. Confessions by Don Berna, who was extradited to the United States in May 2008, and other former AUC members facilitated the prosecution. The Fiscalia noted that the Peace Community's refusal to cooperate had complicated its investigation. ¶3. (U) The Ministry of Defense forcibly retired 11 current and former members of the La Popa Battalion of the 10th Armored Brigade from Cesar Department on January 22, citing command and control problems identified in an investigation by Army Inspector General Carlos Arturo Suarez. Armed Forces Commander General Freddy Padilla said the results of Suarez' investigations would be turned over to the Fiscalia. Suarez headed the special commission which investigated the Soacha killings and lead to the dismissal of 27 military personnel. In 2007 and 2008, the Fiscalia opened 25 investigations into 150 possible extrajudicial executions (EJEs) in Cesar. ¶4. (U) Villavicencio's Human Rights Fiscalia Unit ordered the capture of 14 soldiers of the 16th Brigade in Casanare for alleged involvement in extrajudicial killings, bringing the number of soldiers implicated in the 16th Brigade to 27. In Antioquia, a Human Rights prosecutor charged five soldiers -- at the time members of the 4th Brigade in Medellin -- in the May 28, 2005 death of Maria Santamaria Galeano. A Human Rights prosecutor in Putumayo ordered the preventive detention of five soldiers for alleged involvement in the killing of Ramon Garcia Garcia on May 23, 2006 in Puerto Asis. FARC MOUNT ATTACKS -------------- ¶5. (U) Authorities attributed the January 13 attack on Roberto Popayan (Narino) to the FARC's 29th Front. Six people, including three children, were killed and another 11 were seriously wounded when the FARC attacked the town with improvised mortars. A January 27 bombing of a northern Bogota Blockbuster within blocks of dozens of Embassy apartments was attributed to the FARC's extortion ring. Two people were killed (reftel). The FARC are also implicated in a small explosion in a Cali transit station which caused no injuries. CAPTURED FARC POINT TO GRAVES -------------- ¶6. (U) Captured FARC and demobilized paramilitaries provided the locations of unmarked graves to the human rights group Hands for Peace and the radio program "Voices of the Kidnapped" on January 26. According to Liduine Zumpolle, international representative of Hands for Peace, over a 1000 detained FARC fighters intend to recount their crimes in the hopes of joining the Justice and Peace Process. The information collected by the two human rights groups indicates that the FARC may have murdered as many as 200 "economic" hostages over the last ten years. The groups also have information on the location of unmarked graves for both AUC and FARC victims. EX-PARAS ACCUSED OF KILLING DRUMMOND UNIONISTS -------------- - ¶7. (U) A Human Rights prosecutor accused former-AUC leader (since extradited to the United States) Rodrigo Tovar Pupo ("Jorge 40") and his lieutenant Oscar Jose Ospino Pacheco ("Tolemaida") with the deaths of two Drummond unionists in ¶2001. The prosecutor reissued the order for arrest for Tolemaida. BROWNFIELD