Colombian forces `killing civilians,' says UN

Antonio Guterres, high commissioner for UN's Refugees Agency, left, walks with communal leaders during his visit to the village of Bevedo, Colombia, on Thursday. A report released Thursday by the UN said Colombia's US-backed security forces are increasingly killing civilians in areas of the country where leftist rebels operate, often falsely labeling them guerrillas killed in combat. PHOTO: AP

Colombia's US-backed security forces are increasingly killing civilians -- often falsely labeling them as leftist rebels killed in combat -- the UN said in a report released on Thursday.

The UN High Commissioner of Human Rights also said in its annual report on rights abuses and humanitarian law in Colombia that the government sometimes ignored links between security forces and illegal armed groups.

But the high commissioner praised officials for a "greater commitment" to reduce abuses even if success "was still mixed" due to the nature of Colombia's half-century civil conflict.

"We believe progress has been made," said Juan Pablo Corlazzoli, director of the UN High Commissioner's Office in Colombia.

The tone of the much-watched report, the first under Corlazzoli, was less critical than those produced under his predecessor, the Swede Michael Fruhling, who often angered officials by criticizing government failures to protect and investigate the murder of labor leaders, Indian activists and other threatened groups.

Despite the advances, the report cited "numerous and frequent" violations of human rights, including torture, executions and forced disappearances by leftist rebels, rightist paramilitary groups and, to a lesser extent, government forces.

Human rights groups said such crimes would be better investigated by the independent civil justice system.

"This very serious violation is not limited to a single military unit," said the report, which included no figures or statistics. "It affects various units throughout the national territory."

The government responded to the report with a statement saying the army was increasing human rights safeguards. It said extrajudicial killings by soldiers are rigorously prosecuted.

Guerrillas have been fighting the Colombian state since the 1960s. In the 1980s landowners formed right-wing paramilitary militias to protect their property.

Since the late 1990s both armed groups have been locked in a war over lucrative cocaine-producing land in which thousands of civilians are killed or displaced every year. Colombia is the world's top exporter of the drug.

More than 31,000 paramilitaries have turned in their guns under a deal reached with President Alvaro Uribe offering them benefits including reduced prison terms for crimes such as torture and massacre.

The report said that paramilitaries have not turned over children who fought in their ranks, keeping them from being rehabilitated, and that many mid-level paramilitary commanders have formed new crime gangs.

"The structures of paramilitarism appear less visible and more fragmented, which makes it more difficult to combat them," it said.

Uribe remains popular despite a scandal in which eight of his congressional allies and his former intelligence chief have been arrested for colluding with the paramilitaries.