Commanders' US extraditions concern Colombia

[Judi Lynn]

Commanders' US extraditions concern Colombia
Paramilitary probe feared in disarray
By Juan Forero
Washington Post / August 24, 2008

MEDELLIN, Colombia - In a small courtroom here, Ever Veloza has over the past year confessed to nearly 1,000 slayings in Colombia's conflict and recounted how the death squads he helped run were supported by army officers and prominent politicians.

Veloza, 41, has been among two dozen top commanders to have participated in what is known here as the "Justice and Peace" process, special judicial proceedings designed to unravel the origins of Colombia's paramilitary movement. His testimony has helped authorities uncover crimes and open investigations to ferret out collaborators.

Now, Veloza may be extradited to the United States - not for the war crimes to which he has confessed but to face cocaine-trafficking charges in New York federal court. Perhaps more than anyone else, he knows what that would mean for investigators who have been working for years to understand the intricacies of a coalition of paramilitary groups known as the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia.

~snip~
Fifteen other top paramilitary commanders have been extradited to the United States, raising major concerns among Colombian investigators, victims' rights groups, and organizations such as Human Rights Watch, all of whom say complex investigations into paramilitary crimes are being thrown into disarray.

With nearly all of the top commanders in US jails, the groups say, Colombian detectives and prosecutors have lost their most knowledgeable sources of information about paramilitary groups.

More:
http://www.boston.com/news/world/latinamerica/articles/2008/08/24/commanders_us_extraditions_concern_colombia/

[Judi Lynn]

1. 'More innocent than guilty' killed

'More innocent than guilty' killed
7:15AM Tuesday August 05, 2008

Former right-wing Colombian paramilitary chief Herbert Veloza said he and his men killed 3000 "more innocent than guilty" people in 10 years of fighting, and that many bodies were tossed into a river.

"We killed people merely because they were singled out" as followers or supporters of leftist guerrilla groups, Veloza told El Espectador in his jail cell.

One of the 32,000 members of the United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia who turned in their weapons and disbanded in 2006 after long negotiations with President Alvaro Uribe, Veloza could face trial in the United States for drug smuggling.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10525306

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Page last updated at 10:49 GMT, Saturday, 2 August 2008 11:49 UK
Colombia confronts its bloody past
By Jeremy McDermott
BBC News, El Charcon

Colombia's mass graves are starting to reveal the true horror of more than a decade of paramilitary massacres and murders. But few believe the full truth will ever be known or that the government wants it all revealed.

~snip~
"There was never any state presence here," said chief investigator Wilton Hernandez as he strode up the town's main street. "And once we have left, they will be alone again."

There are dozens of bodies believed to be buried in the hills around this town of 1,000 people.

Unlike other places in Colombia, the paramilitaries did not need to bury or hide their victims as there was a total lack of government presence.

They simply killed people in the streets and waited for the families to pick up the bodies.

~snip~
The exhumation team was headed by Saul Diaz Restrepo, who has dug up and processed more than 2,300 bodies during his career, not just in Colombia, but in Kosovo as well.

"We will never know how many people were killed," he said, putting his white overalls over his black uniform.

"We will exhume all those we can find, but all too many of the paramilitary victims were cut open and thrown into rivers," he said, pointing at the waterway that sweeps past El Charcon.

More:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7533418.stm

[Texano78704]

2. I find it hard to believe

That the AUC had 32,000 members in 2006 (that demobilized). In 2002, they claimed only 11,000 total. How is that possible?