COLOMBIA SUPPORT NETWORK STATEMENT ON KIDNAPPING AND MURDER OF CAQUETA GOVERNOR

    
 
                          COLOMBIA SUPPORT NETWORK STATEMENT ON KIDNAPPING AND MURDER OF CAQUETA GOVERNOR
 
 
           The Colombia Support Network condemns in the strongest terms the December 21 kidnapping and subsequent murder of the Governor of Caqueta Department, Luis Francisco Cuellar. A policeman providing security for Governor Cuellar was also killed, and another policeman was injured. This brutal attack, which has been attributed to the FARC guerrillas, is a violation of human rights and of humanitarian law. We call upon the Colombian authorities to investigate this atrocity and to prosecute those responsible for it. We again call upon the FARC guerrillas to end at once all kidnappings and to release without conditions the hundreds of hostages they are holding. We urge them to end all threats to and attacks upon civilians, whether private citizens or government officials. The Colombian people are rightly tired of war. It is time for the guerrillas and the paramilitary forces to end their violent attacks against civilians, and for the Colombian Army to act responsibly, not in violation of human rights standards, so that peace may be achieved and the conflict which has destroyed so many Colombian lives may end.
 
            We send our condolences to the family of Governor Cuellar and to the family of the policeman who died trying to protect the Governor.
            







Colombia Support Network
P.O. Box 1505
Madison, WI  53701-1505
phone:  (608) 257-8753
fax:  (608) 255-6621
e-mail:  csn@igc.org
http://www.colombiasupport.net