Thursday, July 26, 2007

Report: More landmines placed by guerillas in Colombia

A report released yesterday by Human Rights Watch (HRW) blames Colombia’s largest leftist guerilla group for an alarming increase in deaths and injuries due to landmines. As an HRW press release on the report points out:

“Antipersonnel landmines are easy to manufacture from cheap, readily available materials. The FARC has invoked the low cost of building them as a justification for their use, calling the landmines the “weapon of the poor.” While the majority of landmine casualties are military, the mines are also injuring hundreds of Colombia’s poorest, most vulnerable citizens every year.

Human Rights Watch’s report also describes the FARC’s use of other weapons, such as gas cylinder bombs, in civilian areas. The bombs are impossible to aim accurately, and regularly hit civilian targets such as houses and churches, injuring or killing civilians. “

Jose Miguel Vivanco- HRW's director for the Americas- has often been in disagreement with the policies of Colombian president Alvaro Uribe. Vivanco remarked yesterday against Uribe’s insinuations that HRW is biased in their accusations against paramilitary groups.

Earlier this week, Vivanco called for authorities in Oaxaca, Mexico to investigate reports of supposed police brutality against anti-government demonstrators.

Sources- Reuters AlertNet, Human Rights Watch, International Herald Tribune

Image- BBC News

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