Colombian Defense Ministers says pics of common grave taken from former Yugoslavia (Spanish)

[Bacchus39]

http://www.eltiempo.com/colombia/justicia/fotos-de-fosa-de-la-macarena-son-de-yugoslavia-segun-el-gobierno_7830565-1

El Mindefensa Gabriel Silva aseguró que el grupo de políticos y ONG que responsabiliza al Gobierno y a las Fuerzas MIlitares por los cuerpos que están en una fosa común en La Macarena usaron en Internet fotos de fosas de la antigua Yugoslavia y las presentaron como si correspondieran a la situación en Colombia. "Eso demuestra la mala fe", aseguró.


Defense Minister assures that a group of politicians and NGOs who are blaming the Government and the military for the bodies found in the common grave in Macarena used internet fotos of graves from the former Yugoslavia and presented them as if it were the situation in Colombian. "That demonstrates bad faith", he assured.

[Peace Patriot]

1. And we are supposed to believe Colombia's Defense Minister because...?

The Colombian military are notorious liars. There is a huge scandal in Colombia over the military's policy of "false positives"--luring poor young men with the promise of jobs, murdering them and dressing their bodies up like FARC guerrillas, to EARN BONUSES for upping their "kill count"!

We're talking MAJOR LIARS. Liars without conscience. Bald-faced liars. Murderous liars.

The kind of liars that "tea-baggers" believe (or pretend to believe).

Your promotion of the lies of these murderous dirtbags nails you, Bacchus. This is rightwing DISINFORMATION.

The "pacification" of La Macarena, by the Colombian military was designed by the USAID and the Pentagon. This mass murder--recent graves containing up to 2,000 bodies, whom local people say are 'disappeared' local community activists--occurred in an area of special interest and activity by OUR government, in collusion with the Colombian military. The plan was very similar to the one in Afghanistan--KILL OFF the local leaders and impose bought and paid for leaders in the area, and with the area in a state of terror, leave a residual military force to keep it that way, and move on to the next "pacification." Read about it here...

The La Macarena massacre (includes a description of, and links to docs about, U.S. ops in La Macarena, where this huge mass grave was recently found, containing up to 2,000 dead bodies, of recent vintage--2003-2009--which has been investigated and confirmed by a delegation of British MPs, due to a possible UK military connection to this massacre):
http://www.cipcol.org/?p=1303

The UK military connection
http://www.tribunemagazine.co.uk/2010/02/04/silence-on-british-army-link-to-colombian-mass-grave/

U.S. and Colombia Cover Up Atrocities Through Mass Graves, by Dan Kovalik 4/1/10
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dan-kovalik/us-colombia-cover-up-atro_b_521402.html

Colombia: Mass Grave Discovered In La Macarena
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO1005/S00001.htm

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Not real? Photos from Yugoslavia? That is rightwing bullshit!

[Bacchus39]

2. you don't have to believe it if you don't want to n/t

s

[Bacchus39]

3. excuse me, this was a story in Colombia's largest newspaper, don't blame me out because you don't

want to agree with the Colombian government. You need to settle down.

This is a legitimate news item where the Colombian government is denying the accusations of the existence of a mass grave and claiming the photos are fraudulent. I made no commentary on the news story, just posted it with an accurate summary translation for those like you who do not comprehend Spanish.

futhermore, we all need to first look into the mirror before making accusations of disinformation. Whether the site is a "mass" grave is certainly in doubt, however the denial by the government that it is such is a legitimate news item.

and, talk about disinformation, one of your links talks about the alleged mass grave, however, a subsequent article by the SAME organization throws serious doubt that a massacre occured there.

I post it here:

http://www.cipcol.org/?p=1325

Last Thursday we posted excerpts from two articles in Spanish-language media about a mass grave in the town of La Macarena. The grave is in the middle of a historically guerrilla-controlled zone in Meta department that, in the past five years or so, has been the site of several U.S.-supported military operations. The articles indicated that the La Macarena gravesite contains as many as 2,000 bodies, and that many of the bodies were deposited by the Colombian Army.

Though official investigations of the site won’t begin until March and we are, of course, not present in the zone, we’re following this closely. If true, these allegations could have strong implications for U.S. policy toward Colombia, which has included generous support for military units based in this zone. We have communicated with governmental, non-governmental and journalistic sources. Without violating these communications’ confidentiality, what we’ve heard can be summarized as follows.

Sources agree that the site in question is an official cemetery in the La Macarena town center, not a clandestine area where bodies were dumped.
The cemetery includes a large number of “NN” (name unknown) gravesites. The military recognizes burying unidentified individuals killed in the very frequent combat that has taken place between the armed forces and the FARC. The Army says that all of its burials have been duly registered with the Technical Investigations Unit (CTI) of the Prosecutor-General’s Office (Fiscalía).
Estimating the number of dead at these gravesites is not possible at this time. Official sources doubt that the number is anywhere near as high as 2,000, and it is unclear how the media reports derived that estimate. If even a fraction of that total were “NN” cadavers, however, it would still be unusually large, as the town center of La Macarena municipality  is home to only about 4,000 people.
The mayor of La Macarena, quoted in one of last week’s articles as saying “we became the site for the depositing of the war dead,” now insists that the cemetery is not a mass grave site. He says that the cemetery contains 1,000 human remains, many from nearby combat incidents, and that 346 are unidentified combat dead buried since 2004. The mayor’s remarks came yesterday at a press conference for reporters brought to La Macarena by Colombia’s minister of defense.
There is no clarity about the timeframe of the burials. Some sources contend that most of the bodies were buried before 2005, when the FARC had nearly uncontested dominion over La Macarena, which between 1999 and 2002 was part of the demilitarized zone where FARC-government peace talks took place. Bodies buried before 2005 would be considered more likely to have been buried by the FARC. The news reports, however, claim that most bodies are from the post-2005 period.
Much remains to be clarified. It will be especially difficult to determine whether any of those buried are “false positives” — civilians killed and claimed as guerrilla combat deaths — or others extrajudicially executed on suspicion of guerrilla ties. (Colombian human rights groups have documented a large number of “false positives” in Meta department.)

All of this will have to await further investigation, forensic and otherwise. Meanwhile, one source says, the people in the zone who had made the original denunciations about the grave — a group that includes employees of state institutions — are now too fearful to give any more information.