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Colombian leader says peasant killing was accident { April 13 2004 }

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   http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/world/2502228

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/world/2502228

April 13, 2004, 2:57AM

Colombian leader says peasant killing was accident
Reuters News Service

BOGOTA, Colombia - Colombian President Alvaro Uribe defended his hard-line security agenda from criticism Monday after panicked soldiers fatally shot five civilians, including a baby, after mistaking them for rebels.

Opposition lawmakers seized on the Easter weekend killing as proof that Uribe's hounding of the armed forces for results was taking its toll on soldiers and increasing risk to civilians.

"The path to democratic security is difficult; it has setbacks like this tragedy ... But we must follow it to the end," Uribe said in a televised address to the nation.

Seeing movement in the darkness, a soldier shouted "Halt," but opened fire when one of the peasants began to run along a rural road on Saturday night. The troops shot from a distance of about 100 feet.

The defense ministry issued a report, chalking up the killing to a case of mistaken identity in mountainous zone with a long history of rebel activity, just 90 miles west of Bogota.

"I have motives for extreme sadness, but I lack administrative reasons to sanction the soldiers and officers," Uribe said, after visiting the remote area to personally grill army commanders over the killings.

He also met with relatives and them assured they would be indemnified, while branding the shooting an "unfortunate accident."

Distraught family openly wondered how the soldiers could mistake a group carrying a seven-month-old baby to a hospital for rebels with the the 17,000-member Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known by its Spanish initials FARC.

"They should get these (army) commanders glasses, because they're blind. They can't recognize a bunch of workers," exclaimed relative Hector Mendoza, in comments to local press.

The other victims of the killing, condemned by the United Nations, included Albeiro Mendoza Reyes, his wife Yamile Uruena, his brother Norberto and another unidentified child.


TOO MUCH PRESSURE?

Uribe, who enjoys high favor in Washington for stepping up the fight against his country's enormous cocaine industry, is the most popular Colombian president in a decade, with an 80-percent approval rating.

Since sending troops and police into parts of Colombia previously abandoned to illegal armed groups, the war-torn Andean nation's homicide and kidnapping rates have shown a pronounced decline.

But Saturday's incident came just three weeks after soldiers killed seven police officers and four civilians they were escorting under arrest in southern Colombia. Despite calls from Uribe, those killings have yet to be explained.

Some lawmakers said the pressure was getting to the country's armed forces.

"To be demanding results in such a coercive manner can be counter-productive," said left-leaning Sen. Carlos Gaviria.

Thousands of people are killed every year in Colombia's conflict, in which rebels say they are fighting for social justice and fund themselves with kidnapping and cocaine.

Uribe, who has won praise for taken responsibility for operations which have gone wrong, and making military commanders publicly explain their errors, praised the army for its transparency.

"If this was about an army that violated human rights, those who shot the peasants would have tried to hide it, lie about it, or make the bodies disappear," Uribe said.

"Our commanders acted with responsibility and told the truth."




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