A Colombian reporter accused of conspiring with leftist rebels denied the allegations on Friday, saying his contacts with the guerrillas were purely for his journalistic work.
William Parra said in an interview in Venezuela, where he lives, that police and military in his home country have viewed him as an enemy ever since he refused to lead them to a camp where he interviewed a leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
“I don’t have anything to hide. My closeness to the guerrillas was exclusively out of journalistic interest,” Parra said. “I never passed a line beyond that.”
A Colombian court issued a warrant for Parra’s arrest on Monday.
Prosecutors have accused him of financing terrorist activities and sedition. However, on Friday, prosecutor Ricardo Bejarano said he was removed from the case.
Parra called that a positive step.
“It shows they are in fact recognizing all of the highhandedness,” he said.
He said Colombian authorities should also allow him access to any evidence they believe they have against him related to contacts with the FARC.
Bejarano has said prosecutors have e-mails that Parra exchanged with Raul Reyes, a rebel commander killed in 2008, and that in one, Reyes asks Parra to buy missiles in the Middle East.
Parra denied meeting with anyone to discuss weapons for the FARC.
“When they show me that evidence, I’m willing to go to jail,” he said.
Meanwhile, eight police officers were killed in clashes with leftist rebels on Friday in southwestern Colombia near the border with Ecuador, authorities said revising down an earlier death toll of 10.
Police and defense ministry officials said four police officers were also wounded and two civilians were missing in the shootout with members FARC, who tried to take over San Miguel town in Putumayo province.
Earlier, San Miguel Mayor Roberto Benavides said 10 police had been killed, while Orlando Paez, a top national police official, reported two guerrillas killed in the shootout.
Ombudsman Volmar Perez said the guerrillas fled San Miguel after the firefight and placed landmines during their retreat.
In Bogota, Colombian Defense Minister Rodrigo Rivera said he “communicated with Ecuador’s Security Minister Miguel Carvajal, who agreed to immediately activate the cross-border binational commission, to conduct a joint investigation into the facts.”
Carvajal, speaking to reporters in Quito, strongly denied the attack had been launched from the Ecuadoran side of the border, insisting the national security forces have “full territorial control.”
Colombia’s rebel groups have launched a string of deadly attacks in recent weeks following the inauguration of Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, a former defense minister who has promised to maintain pressure on the insurgents.
The air force said on Friday it had sent combat and reconnaissance planes to the area, while two medical helicopters were dispatched to pick up wounded police.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not