UK Government: Siding with Terror in Colombia

UK Government: Siding with Terror in Colombia

As Colombian President Alvaro Uribe Velez visits the British Prime Minister and MPs this week, War on Want re-asserts its demand that the British government immediately stops its military assistance programme to Colombia.

President Uribe has failed to abide by the conditions laid down by the British government on current European aid agreed in July 2003 . In the meantime Colombia continues to be the most dangerous country in the world to be a trade unionist, with thousands of activists murdered for their political activities every year.

Most human rights abuses are committed by right-wing paramilitary death squads, which have documented links with the official armed forces, but last August three trade union activists were assassinated by a unit of the Army itself.

In February this year eight people (four of them children) were massacred in the peace community of San José Apartado. The armed forces have been accused of this massacre. Rather than conduct an investigation into the atrocity, President Uribe accused some community leaders from San José Apartado of being guerrillas, thereby jeopardising the lives of more inhabitants of the community.

Nick Dearden, War on Want Campaigns Officer, said: “In a situation where the Colombian Army itself is murdering and incarcerating civil society activists, where Uribe has failed to meet a single UN Human Rights Commission recommendation, and where the numbers of political prisoners increase on a weekly basis, it is incredible that Britain is still giving military assistance, at the taxpayer’s expense, to this regime. Just as unacceptable is that this week Tony Blair has seen fit to give President Uribe red carpet treatment, including high level business access.”
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http://www.waronwant.org/UK+Government:+Siding+with+Terror+in+Colombia++10337.twl

I really don't understand this.

It's very informative.