Colombia: UN right offices again condemns leftist rebels for murder of civilians

United Nations human rights officials have yet again condemned leftist rebel attacks on civilians, this time deploring the murder of two local government councillors, allegedly by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - People's Army (FARC-EP) and the National Liberation Army (ELN).

The Office of the UH High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) bureau in Colombia stressed in a statement that High Commissioner Louise Arbour had repeatedly called on members of illegal armed groups to respect the right to life of all civilians and to refrain from targeting civilians at all times.

Last month the office issued one of its strongest recent condemnations of FARC-EP after the murder of a former governor of an indigenous reservation and his wife.

“The Office stresses that by their number and their frequency the murders perpetrated by members of FARC-EP constitute a crime against humanity on which the International Criminal Court will be able to exercise its jurisdiction,” it said.

That statement followed the three earlier condemnations in which the Office accused the group of committing war crimes in the separate massacres of nine bus passengers, nine members of a local municipal council, and three civilians, including a 76-year-old woman and an eight-year-old child.