U.N. Condemns Colombia Over Massacre

BOGOTA -- The United Nations condemned Colombia following a weekend massacre in the nation's northeast that authorities Wednesday said had claimed the lives of at least 36 people.

The Colombian government ``has not taken the measures and actions necessary to guarantee the life and safety of the inhabitants of this region,'' the U.N. High Commission For Human Rights in Colombia said in a statement issued late Tuesday.

``The office reminds the Colombian State of its international duty to thoroughly investigate these acts and take action in respect of possible omissions by public officials,'' it added.

An illegal ultra-right paramilitary alliance known as the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), with about 5,000 fighters nationwide, launched the two-day attack late Friday around the northeastern oil town of Tibu.

The area near the Venezuelan frontier has long been a stronghold for Colombia's two main Marxist rebel groups. Officials said armed groups on the left and right were also battling for lucrative drug production and smuggling routes in the region.

In a statement Wednesday, London-based Amnesty International accused government security forces of colluding with the paramilitary gang in the massacre.

``The security forces and their paramilitary allies (are) continuing committing grave rights violations with almost total impunity,'' it said.

Human rights groups have consistently accused the army of backing death squads in their war against the rebels and suspected civilian sympathizers.

Despite stop-start peace talks between the government and the main guerrilla group since early January, Colombia's civil war -- in which more than 35,000 people have died in just 10 years -- has soared to new heights of barbarity.

The government's Human Rights Ombudsman said Wednesday that in violence overnight Friday and Saturday, 21 people -- mostly peasants -- were killed in the village of La Gabarra, eight were slain in the village of Cano Lupa, four in Petrolea and three in Campo Dos.

All the communities are in northeast Norte de Santander province.

The AUC launched an offensive to drive out the guerrillas in late May in which more than 142 people have been killed and some 2,500 forced to flee into neighboring Venezuela.

U.N. observers traveled to the zone earlier this year and warned the government of paramilitary threats but no action appears to have been taken.

Local media reported this week that the latest massacres were carried out by a 100-strong death squad dressed in military uniforms and carrying high-powered weapons.

The leading El Tiempo newspaper said that the leader of the gang told a bar owner in La Gabarra: ``Turn the music up. The party is only just beginning.'' Then he opened fire on the customers.

In comments to the Radionet radio network Tuesday, Carlos Castano, Colombia's most-feared death squad chief, admitted he had ordered the killings but argued most of the victims were guerrillas.

``I can't wait for the guerrillas to put on their uniforms before I kill them,'' he said.