Also see: Colombia's Mass Graves
"Uribe fires 20 Colombian officers, citing 'murder of innocents'" by Frank Bajak, Associated Press | October 30, 2008
BOGOTA - President Alvaro Uribe yesterday fired 20 army officers, including three generals and four colonels, for neglect that allowed the killing of civilians to inflate rebel casualty counts.
A three-week probe determined that the officers, including two division and three brigade commanders, permitted soldiers to conspire with criminals in what Uribe called "the murder of innocents."
The biggest shakeup in years for Colombia's US-backed military, yesterday's purge further complicates Bush administration efforts to force a vote in Congress on a free-trade agreement with Colombia. Democrats who have stalled such a vote have cited Colombia's checkered human rights record, which includes the killings of union organizers and the military's past collaboration with far-right militias.
Awww, it slows down Bush's trade agenda!
Who GIVES a FUCK about TRADE right now?
WTF is WRONG with the shitty Zionist MSM?
Prosecutors have been investigating a rise in alleged army killings of noncombatants with the aim of exaggerating unit performance against leftist rebels. Uribe ordered the investigation after a public uproar over the deaths of 11 men who disappeared from the poor Bogota suburb of Soacha this year and whose bodies were later found in common graves in a northeastern combat zone. --more--"
