UN rights agency condemns rebel killing of hostages in Colombia

The United Nations human rights agency today condemned the recent killing of a Colombian provincial governor and nine other people who had been held hostage by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrilla group.

A spokesman for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) reiterated the call contained in the last report of High Commissioner Sergio Vieira de Mello to the Commission on Human Rights for the FARC and other illegal armed groups in Colombia to release all hostages they were holding.

Spokesman José Luis Díaz said the local OHCHR office in Colombia, in condemning the killing of the governor of Antioquia province and the others, recalled that the FARC had ignored pleas for the release of the hostages, including by the office and the High Commissioner.