WASHINGTON, Aug 28 (OneWorld.net) - A woman who accused the Colombian Army of executing her husband was killed in her home Wednesday along with 10 others, including four children and three teenagers, according to human rights monitors in the region.
What's the Story?
Military march, Medellin, Colombia, August 2007. © vonbergen.net (flickr)Tulia García was murdered early Wednesday morning when armed men in camouflage broke into her home and began shooting.
The attack came three days after the killing of García's husband, Gonzalo Rodríguez. García reportedly said she saw armed men detain her husband on Sunday and later found his dead body on the side of a road, with his head riddled with bullets. Colombian officials had accused Rodríguez of being a member of the FARC rebel group and said they killed him while he was trying to escape.
But independent monitors think the mass killing -- just three days later -- of those who witnessed Rodríguez's abduction, casts serious aspersion on the government's actions and explanation.
The 10 people killed along with García on Wednesday morning were believed to be relatives and friends, including her two children, a 6-year-old girl and a 5-year-old boy.
"Initial reports suggest that members of the Army may have massacred these people, with the purpose of eliminating and intimidating witnesses of atrocities," said a spokesperson for Human Rights Watch, a nonprofit group that monitors and reports on atrocities against civilians worldwide.
The group called on the Colombian government to conduct a legitimate investigation "of this horrific crime," but noted the government's repeated failure to prevent attacks against civilians and adequately investigate reports of abuses, despite the alarms raised by human rights monitors on a regular basis in recent months and years. [Read the full report from Human Rights Watch below.]
Murder Victims All from Awa Indigenous Group
García, Rodríguez, and the other 10 people killed this week were all members of the Awa indigenous group. A group of Awa leaders has traveled to the site of the shooting to conduct their own investigation, reported Survival International, an organization that supports the rights of indigenous communities worldwide to live free from intimidation.
At least 27 other Awa community members were attacked and killed in two separate incidents earlier this year, said Survival and ONIC, the national indigenous peoples' organization in Colombia.
"The Awa, like many of Colombia's indigenous peoples, have suffered for years as a result of violent conflict between the Colombian army, guerrillas, and paramilitary groups encroaching on and destroying their land," said Survival in a statement this week. [Click here for more from Survival International.]
Millions of Colombians Displaced by Ongoing Conflict
Between 3 and 4 million people in Colombia have been displaced by 40 years of armed conflict, and in 2008 alone, nearly 400,000 people were driven from their homes by the violence, according to a report released last month by Amnesty International, another global human rights watchdog group. The 2008 displacements represented a 24 percent increase over the previous year.
"Guerrilla groups, paramilitaries, and the security forces have targeted many [civilians] deliberately," said the Amnesty report. "Often, the aim is to remove whole communities from areas of military, strategic, or economic importance."
The vast majority of those affected are indigenous people, Afro-Colombians -- the descendants of African slaves who are one of the largest minority groups in the country -- and rural farmers. Most live in what Amnesty called "areas of interest to the parties to the conflict." [Click here for the full statement from Amnesty.]
Peace Communities Under Attack
Amnesty also reported in February that Colombian civilians who refuse to take part in the conflict are being attacked by guerrilla groups, paramilitaries, and the Colombian security forces for maintaining their stance as "communities in resistance." link..
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