A-Infos (en) Colombia Oil Town Holds Funeral for Massacre Dead

[Tom Burghardt <tburghardt@igc.apc.org>]

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        COLOMBIA OIL TOWN HOLDS FUNERAL FOR MASSACRE DEAD
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     03:21 p.m May 19, 1998 Eastern
     By Jose Miguel Gomez
 
     BARRANCABERMEJA, Colombia, May 19 (Reuters) - Sporadic rebel
gunfire echoed across this northeast oil town on Tuesday as
thousands gathered for the funerals of seven of the victims slain
by a right-wing death squad over the weekend. Four other victims
were buried late on Monday in a candlelight ceremony.
   
     More than 40 people remained missing in the wake of Sunday's
predawn paramilitary raid in which at least 11 people were
killed, according to Barrancabermeja municipal authorities.
   
     The entire town came to a grinding halt from late on Monday
as the powerful oil workers' union and other grass-roots
movements declared a 48-hour strike to protest the surge in
right-wing violence ahead of this month's presidential elections.
   
     ``Things are still tense here. Some of the victims are being
buried and those who disappeared have still not returned home,''
Gustavo Triana, one of the leaders of the fiercely nationalistic
USO oil union, said just before the start of the funerals.
   
     Millions of ordinary Colombians thronged streets across the
country shortly before midday in a call led by business
associations and trade unions for an end to the long-running
civil conflict.
   
     A Reuters photographer said about 5,000 people attended the
mass funeral outside the church in central Barrancabermeja. He
said shooting could be heard in northeast suburbs of the town
through much of Monday night and Tuesday morning -- close to
where Sunday's attack occurred. Protesters burned a truck and
tires in the streets.
   
     Police blamed the gunfire on urban guerrillas attacking
police and army patrols in retaliation for what they saw as
official complicity in the paramilitary raid.
   
     In Bogota, residents poured out of their homes and work
places, or simply abandoned their cars in the middle of the road,
to join street protests against the country's ``dirty war.''
   
     Business groups and unions initially called Tuesday's anti-
violence demonstration to mark the first anniversary of the
murder of two environmental activists in the capital.
   
     But the protest took on wider significance after a top human
rights lawyer was slain by right-wing gunmen last month, followed
by the murder this month of a former defense minister and a wave
of massacres of civilians in the last month.
   
     In a strongly-worded letter published on Monday, Amnesty
International secretary-general Pierre Sane accused President
Ernesto Samper of failing to rein in the ``dark forces pushing
Colombia to the edge of the abyss.''
 
     Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
 
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