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Colombia Gov't to Arm Peasants
Josey1
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Colombia Gov't to Arm Peasants
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By JUAN PABLO TORO
Associated Press Writer
August 22, 2002, 3:26 PM EDT
BOGOTA, Colombia -- President Alvaro Uribe's government plans to arm 20,000 peasants to support the armed forces in the fight against outlawed rebel and paramilitary groups, Colombia's defense minister said Thursday.
The recruits will receive military training, and a small salary paid for by a new 1.2 percent war tax being imposed on higher-income businesses and individuals in Colombia, Defense Minister Martha Lucia Ramirez said in a radio interview. The recruitment is expected to be completed by the end of the year.
The government is obtaining cost estimates for assault rifles, machine guns, mortars and grenade launchers from U.S. and European arms manufacturers, according to media reports. Uniforms and boots are also being made for the mainly poor farmers, who will live in their homes and protect their own neighborhoods.
Analysts and human rights monitors say the plan risks turning neutral civilians into targets of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as the FARC, or the paramilitaries.
"You are turning these people -- as a legal matter, as a practical matter -- into combatants," said Arturo Carrillo, a professor and human rights law expert at Columbia University in New York. "If and when the FARC starts going after these people, they will not be in violation of international law."
The fighting pits the FARC and another leftist guerrilla group against Colombia's U.S.-backed military and the right-wing paramilitaries.
In theory, government forces are to back the peasant-soldiers in the event of an attack. But there are no government forces in 186 of the 1,000 counties, barely so in 227 others.
Uribe, who took office on Aug. 7 amid a rebel mortar bombardment in the capital Bogota, has vowed to nearly double the number of professional police and soldiers by 2006.
Ramirez said inducting peasants complements this effort. "In this way we will achieve a greater presence, but there will also be more professional soldiers."
Adam Isacson of the left-leaning Center for International Policy in Washington acknowledged Colombia's desperation, but was critical.
"I can see why it makes sense, because there are so few good options right now," he said. "But the probability of this blowing up in their face is way too great."
Rebels could also mark the new soldiers by their uniforms, attack their homes and steal weapons, Isacson said.
As a state governor in the mid-1990s, Uribe championed armed vigilante groups. But these were allegedly infiltrated by a brutal paramilitary group to target suspected rebel collaborators.
Uribe won a landslide victory on a pledge to get tough with both the rebels and the paramilitaries. He quickly decreed emergency powers to able to impose the war tax and expand security personnel.
His moves have raised concerns of an escalation of the 38-year war that kills nearly 3,500 people every year.
"It is worrisome that we keep arming the country," said Ana Teresa Bernal, director of Redepaz, a nonprofit peace group. "The violence has brought us to such a dramatic state."
Copyright c 2002, The Associated Press
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-colombia-peasant-warriors0822aug22.story
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
Email this story
Printer friendly format
Top Stories
Bodies of Helicopter Pilots Found
AP News Alert
Man Pleads Guilty to Illegal Import
Authorities Seize Shark Fin Cargo
Wildfire Suspect Pleads Innocent
By JUAN PABLO TORO
Associated Press Writer
August 22, 2002, 3:26 PM EDT
BOGOTA, Colombia -- President Alvaro Uribe's government plans to arm 20,000 peasants to support the armed forces in the fight against outlawed rebel and paramilitary groups, Colombia's defense minister said Thursday.
The recruits will receive military training, and a small salary paid for by a new 1.2 percent war tax being imposed on higher-income businesses and individuals in Colombia, Defense Minister Martha Lucia Ramirez said in a radio interview. The recruitment is expected to be completed by the end of the year.
The government is obtaining cost estimates for assault rifles, machine guns, mortars and grenade launchers from U.S. and European arms manufacturers, according to media reports. Uniforms and boots are also being made for the mainly poor farmers, who will live in their homes and protect their own neighborhoods.
Analysts and human rights monitors say the plan risks turning neutral civilians into targets of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as the FARC, or the paramilitaries.
"You are turning these people -- as a legal matter, as a practical matter -- into combatants," said Arturo Carrillo, a professor and human rights law expert at Columbia University in New York. "If and when the FARC starts going after these people, they will not be in violation of international law."
The fighting pits the FARC and another leftist guerrilla group against Colombia's U.S.-backed military and the right-wing paramilitaries.
In theory, government forces are to back the peasant-soldiers in the event of an attack. But there are no government forces in 186 of the 1,000 counties, barely so in 227 others.
Uribe, who took office on Aug. 7 amid a rebel mortar bombardment in the capital Bogota, has vowed to nearly double the number of professional police and soldiers by 2006.
Ramirez said inducting peasants complements this effort. "In this way we will achieve a greater presence, but there will also be more professional soldiers."
Adam Isacson of the left-leaning Center for International Policy in Washington acknowledged Colombia's desperation, but was critical.
"I can see why it makes sense, because there are so few good options right now," he said. "But the probability of this blowing up in their face is way too great."
Rebels could also mark the new soldiers by their uniforms, attack their homes and steal weapons, Isacson said.
As a state governor in the mid-1990s, Uribe championed armed vigilante groups. But these were allegedly infiltrated by a brutal paramilitary group to target suspected rebel collaborators.
Uribe won a landslide victory on a pledge to get tough with both the rebels and the paramilitaries. He quickly decreed emergency powers to able to impose the war tax and expand security personnel.
His moves have raised concerns of an escalation of the 38-year war that kills nearly 3,500 people every year.
"It is worrisome that we keep arming the country," said Ana Teresa Bernal, director of Redepaz, a nonprofit peace group. "The violence has brought us to such a dramatic state."
Copyright c 2002, The Associated Press
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-colombia-peasant-warriors0822aug22.story
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878