As Colombian War Crimes Suspects Sit in U.S. Prisons, Victims Protest

As Colombian War Crimes Suspects Sit in U.S. Prisons, Victims Protest
By Juan Forero
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, October 4, 2009

BOGOTA, Colombia -- One by one and in gory detail, a former death squad commander, Hernán Giraldo, recounted at special judicial hearings how he killed his opponents in Colombia's long, murky war.

But in May 2008, Giraldo and 14 other paramilitary warlords were extradited to the United States on drug-trafficking charges and, according to Colombian prosecutors, stopped cooperating with Colombian investigators. Victims' families say they still do not know about the financiers and power brokers behind a paramilitary army that wreaked havoc until a recent disarmament.

~snip~
Investigators have determined that paramilitary militias are responsible for 24,000 killings, wide-scale disappearances and the theft of billions of dollars in land.

Victims' rights groups and some government investigators here say the results of the process have been mixed. No commander has been convicted of war crimes, and an effort to return stolen land to victims' families has been hamstrung by bureaucratic red tape.

Investigators have determined that paramilitary militias are responsible for 24,000 killings, wide-scale disappearances and the theft of billions of dollars in land.

Victims' rights groups and some government investigators here say the results of the process have been mixed. No commander has been convicted of war crimes, and an effort to return stolen land to victims' families has been hamstrung by bureaucratic red tape.

For some victims, perhaps most troubling is that commanders with the broadest historical knowledge of the paramilitary movement, including details of its links to Colombia's power structure, are now in U.S. jails. The attorney general's office here said that only three of the commanders have continued giving testimony in depositions run by Colombian prosecutors and seen by victims in Colombia via closed-circuit television.

"They have the most vital information, the most important and substantial information that leads to the men behind the movement," said Iván Cepeda, the leader of a victims' rights group whose father, Sen. Manuel Cepeda, was killed by military and paramilitary operatives in 1994.

More:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/03/AR2009100301037.html

having been responsible for ordering deaths of many, MANY people.

From the Washington Post article:

Among those frustrated by the process is the commander considered the most cooperative, Salvatore Mancuso, a former rancher whose militias are said to be responsible for 10,000 crimes.

Now at the Northern Neck Regional Jail in Warsaw, Va., Mancuso complains that he does not have a phone to communicate with Colombian investigators or a computer to track details of his crimes.

Mancuso has participated in three depositions with Colombian investigators since arriving in the United States, Colombia's attorney general's office said. But Mancuso contends that he was extradited to keep him from revealing links between his organization and Colombian military, business and political leaders.

"Once I started to tell truths, the government became uncomfortable," he said, "and the way to stop that was to exile me."

http://wwwimage.cbsnews.com.nyud.net:8090/images/2008/05/13/image4091149g.jpg http://2.bp.blogspot.com.nyud.net:8090/_FxCl-zDjIOQ/RkqfQbTgYkI/AAAAAAAABYE/sw5mv2LyFR8/s400/Mancuso-1.jpg

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk.nyud.net:8090/media/images/44689000/jpg/_44689478_mancuso_afp_226.jpg http://msnbcmedia3.msn.com.nyud.net:8090/j/msnbc/Components/Photo_StoryLevel/080528/080528-laptops-colombia-hmed-10a.hmedium.jpg

http://portland.indymedia.org.nyud.net:8090/icon/2004/01/278972.jpg http://www.cambio.com.co.nyud.net:8090/paiscambio/786/IMAGEN/IMAGEN-4393431-2.jpg
Mancuso's Wikipedia:

Salvatore Mancuso Gómez, also known as "el Mono Mancuso","Santander Lozada" or "Triple Cero", among other names (born August 17, 1964 in Montería, Córdoba) is a Colombian paramilitary leader, once second in command of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) paramilitary group. The paramilitary groups commanded by Mancuso fought the guerrillas (mainly EPL, FARC and ELN), and financed their activities by receiving donations from land owners, drug trafficking, extortions and robbery.

The AUC committed numerous atrocities and massacres against pressumed guerrilla members and the civilian population. Mancuso was initially jailed in a Maximum Security Prison in Itagüí, Antioquia after a peace process that led to his demobilization and then transferred to a prison in the city of Cucuta to from there help identify victims whereabouts. In a surprise move by the Colombian government, Mancuso, together with 13 other top members of the AUC was extradited to the United States to stand trial on drug trafficking charges.<1>

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvatore_Mancuso

~~~~~~~~~~

Google tanslation of an article which involves Mancuso as someone who also used rape as an instrument of terror:

Colombia: lukewarm pursuit of rape as a weapon of war
Wednesday 9 September 2009 - 10:52


Prosecutors revealed that Latin American country has started proceedings against 183 people who have abused women as a form of bullying in the armed conflict.


The Colombian Prosecutor's Office has revealed the existence of 183 prosecutions for sexual abuse more than 500 women during armed conflict.

Among the former are bound by rape paramilitary leaders who had been extradited to the United States, including Salvatore Mancuso, Rodrigo Tovar. Both would be linked to acts of rape committed in Sucre and Bolivar departments.

In addition, two former paramilitaries are accused of torture and killing. The Colombian Prosecutor's Office is investigating whether the same crimes were committed by the police or army personnel.

During the armed conflict, paramilitary and army forces, police and guerrillas have committed human rights violations.

The use of violence against civilians are continuing and sexual violence is used as a weapon of war.

Violations of young women and girls were used to terrorize the civilian population and forcing them to leave their homes or land.

http://www.corresponsaldepaz.org/news/2009/09/09/0002

http://www.corresponsaldepaz.org.nyud.net:8090/mm/image/informe-mujeres-colombia-abusos.jpg