Colombia: UN rights office condemns fresh civilian deaths in conflict

In its latest condemnation of "grave breaches of international human rights" in Colombia's decades-old civil war, the local United Nations human rights office has deplored the killing of three civilians, two of them young girls, and the wounding of 26 others during fighting last week.

The Colombia office of the UH High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCR) noted that the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – Popular Army (FARC-EP) and the Central Bolivar Bloc of the rightist Colombian Self-Defence Units (AUC) were in the southern Putumayo region where the incident occurred.

"In condemning these acts of violence, the Office stresses that international norms on the general protection of the civilian population must be observed by all those who participate directly in hostilities within an internal armed conflict," the Office said in a statement.

Hundreds of thousands of people are estimated to have been killed and millions displaced in four decades of fighting in the Latin American country between leftist guerrillas, Government forces and right-wing paramilitaries, and UN offices have frequently issued appeals to prevent violence against and the displacement of civilians.