Columbia and Extrajudicial Killings Scandal

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Seoul Times

Columbia and Extrajudicial Killings Scandal
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
By Lee Jay Walker
Tokyo Correspondent

The government of Colombia which is supported by the United States of America, Canada, the United Kingdom, and others, is now in the spotlight because of the continuing grisly finds of dead corpses. The killings have been carried out by sections of the armed forces and it is a grim reminder of events in Chile, El Salvador, Guatemala, and other nations throughout the region, with regards to events in the 1970s and 1980s.

If this scandal had happened in modern day Cuba or Venezuela, then America, Canada, the United Kingdom, and others, would be the first to call for "a major enquiry" and more severe action would be taken. However, for all the above named nations, then it is complex because they have supported the current government of Colombia. So how will these nations respond to the government of President Alvaro Uribe?

It would appear that "cracks are emerging" because the British government is alarmed by recent events. For example, David Miliband, the British Foreign Secretary, stated that "The challenge for the Colombian government is to ensure the strategic human rights principles we have helped to promote are embedded and consistently practiced by all members of their armed services."

Therefore, the British government will divert part of its military aid because of the gross violations of human rights in Colombia. Alan Campbell, from the British Home Office, said that aid would not be given to any areas which had links to the "false positives." This applies to the extrajudicial killings in Colombia; however, can the British government be assured that the "chain"in this scandal is so limited?



Read more: http://theseoultimes.com/ST/?url=/ST/db/read.php?idx=8368

[aquart]

1. Edit the title.

[Judi Lynn]

2. What am I missing? That's exactly what the Seoul Times is using as its headline.

If I alter it, then I'm not following D.U. rules.

[sledgehammer]

3. They messed up then: Colombia (country) vs Columbia (university, DC, etc) n/t