At Least 39 Children Killed in Colombia

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Reuters via Yahoo - Sat May 4, 9:52 PM ET 

At Least 39 Children Killed in Colombian Fighting 

By Jason Webb 

MEDELLIN (Reuters) - Thirty-nine children no older than 15 were among
at least 98 people killed around two Colombian villages caught in a
battle between far-right militias and leftist rebels who bombarded a
packed church on Thursday, a provincial health service said on
Saturday.

Antioquia province health workers, the first officials to reach the
remote northern Colombian jungle village of Vigia del Fuerte since
the battle began earlier this week, named and provided ages of 50 of
the dead, including a baby and many small children, a provincial
government news release said.

Most of the 3,500 people killed in an average year in Colombia's
38-year-old conflict are civilians, but the fighting around Vigia del
Fuerte and across a jungle river in Bojaya, Choco province, stands
out in a savage struggle as one of the bloodiest incidents involving
noncombatants for years.

The army, fearing ambushes, has still not come to the rescue of the
impoverished villages, where surrounding thick jungle has been made
more impenetrable by wet season flooding.

The parish priest of Bojaya said by radio earlier this week that many
of his parishioners were killed when they sheltered in his church and
it was hit by a home-made mortar fired by the leftist Revolutionary
Armed Forces of Colombia, or "FARC".

About 800-1,200 FARC guerrillas attacked 500-600 far-right
paramilitaries -- members of the United Self-Defense Forces of
Colombia, or "AUC" -- who had gathered around Vigia del Fuerte
several days ago. The two outlawed forces are fighting for control of
drug crops and a key route to Panama for smuggling cocaine out of
Colombia and weapons in, the army says.

The medics, who flew in by helicopter and evacuated 19 seriously
wounded despite the army's failure to secure the zone, examined
another 18 corpses in addition to those named and added there were
about another 30 dead still unidentified.

It was too dangerous to bury any of the dead, the Antioquia Health
Department said.

It did not say how many were killed in the church, or how many of the
dead were rebels or paramilitary outlaws.

However, those named seemed to be overwhelmingly civilians. A handful
of surnames were repeated again and again -- suggesting families,
mainly children, had been wiped out together.

RADIOED CALLS FOR HELP

The priest and a local hospital worker have made desperate appeals
for help in the past few days over a bad radio connection. The two
villages are dirt poor, and local officials say many of the houses
are thatched huts.

But the army fears FARC guerrillas are lying in ambush along the
River Atrato -- the most reliable way into the two villages -- and
the military has not yet been able to mobilize the necessary men and
equipment to send troops in.

"We know that on the way there they have set up ambushes. That's
typical of those FARC bandits," said army Gen. Leonel Gomez.

A provincial health official told Reuters the eventual death toll
could be as high as 130.

In addition to the dead, another 105 people have been wounded, 35 of
these badly enough to require hospitalization, the priest and the
local hospital official have said.

The FARC and the paramilitaries ceased fighting when the ambulance
helicopters flew in.

But the army's inability to reach the battlefield, which is only 100
miles west of Colombia's third-largest city, Medellin, seems graphic
proof of the military's continuing weakness despite massive U.S. aid
to strengthen the country's anti-drug fight. The army also said that
it feared its arrival would mean more fighting, hindering the medical
team's work.

The military is short of helicopters and properly trained
professional troops. The candidate leading polls for the presidential
election May 26, the tough anti-guerrilla independent Alvaro Uribe,
promises a significant boost in military spending.

The fighting around Vigia del Fuerte and Bojaya has been among the
heaviest since the government abandoned three-year-old peace talks
with the FARC in February.

Human rights groups say the government has not done enough to break
links between the armed forces and the AUC, which is illegal and has
roots in vigilante groups set up to defend cattle ranchers and drug
dealers from Marxist guerrillas.
 
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