_WORLD WATCH______________________________
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Nine killed in Easter attack
Rebels attack mountain village
Nine people were killed and four wounded when hundreds of Marxist rebels invaded a Colombian village on Easter Sunday.
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels were blamed in the attack, which also destroyed houses and cars in La Caucana, a town in the northwestern Antioquia province. Col. Jairo Ovalle of the Colombian army said some 400 FARC rebels took part in the attack. The rebels had targeted villagers for collaborating with an outlawed right-wing paramilitary militia group, whose members had fled to the mountains prior to the FARC attack, Ovalle said.
The killings in La Caucana came just days after militia members slaughtered 32 people in the southern town of Naya in a parallel attack. The militia groups had accused those villagers of aiding the rebels. The militia attacks around La Caucana continued from Good Friday through Easter Sunday, leaving more than 100 victims.
After that wave of violence, Cardinal Pedro Rubiano Saenz of Bogota said, “Those organizations are completely wrong if they think they will achieve anything worthwhile through violence.” He also pointed out that the leaders of all the contending forces in the conflict had pledged to respect a cease-fire during Holy Week. The militia group’s disregard for that promise “is evidence of how ill prepared they are for peace talks,” he said.
Cardinal Rubiano insisted that “any group involved in the conflict that thinks peace can be achieved through violence is dead wrong.” To achieve peace in Colombia now, he said, “We all have to clear a pathway to reconciliation, by showing respect for human life.”
Cardinal Rubiano also praised another left-wing rebel group, the National Liberation Army (ELN), for announcing its decision to embark on peace talks with the government of President Andres Pastrana. “This is good news, because it means they are considering a peaceful way out of the conflict. We hope they will not let the hope of Colombians down,” he added.