COLOMBIA:Colombian president Alvaro Uribe accused leftist rebels on Thursday of murdering 11 kidnapped politicians last week, after the guerrillas said they had been killed during a raid on their secret jungle prison.
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or Farc, said the 11 dead had been cut down in the crossfire when an unidentified military group attacked the camp on June 18th.
But Mr Uribe said government troops were nowhere near the area where the legislators were being held and called the Farc statement a ploy to cover up "this crime against humanity". "No rescue mission was under way," Mr Uribe said. "They were deliberately assassinated."
The 11 were captured along with another fellow provincial politician in Valle del Cauca's capital city, Cali, in 2002.
"The most likely scenario is the camp was being attacked by an illegal paramilitary group and that the Farc executed the hostages," said Pablo Casas, an analyst with an independent Bogotá think tank.
In the 1980s, rich Colombians organised paramilitary militias to ensure protection from Farc kidnappings and land grabs. By the late 1990s, both groups had become involved in cocaine smuggling and took to murdering peasants suspected of co-operating with the other side.
Mr Uribe ordered the national anthem played in a televised ceremony where he accused the four-decade-old guerrilla army of the murders. Family members of those reported dead appeared on a television news programme tearfully comforting each other.
The 11 were among about 60 high-profile hostages, including three American defence contractors and French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt, whom the government wanted to swap for guerrillas. - (Reuters)