Air Force Bombs Community
News from Colombia |
on: Saturday, 27 October 2007
Yesterday the Colombian Air Force bombed and strafed with machinegun fire the rural community of Mapiripan in Meta department. Although nobody was hurt in the attack the community's water supply was damaged and houses were destroyed.
According to the Community Action Council of Mapiripan, the attack has caused panic in the area with children especially terrified. They have called on the Red Cross and the United Nations to immediately send a mission to the area to verify what happened.
The municipality of Mapiripan has suffered greatly in recent years beginning with a massacre of over 50 members of the community by paramilitaries who spent five days in the region torturing and murdering men, women and children in 1997. It has since been revealed that the Colombian Army worked with the paramilitaries to coordinate the massacre and although the Colombian State has admitted guilt those military officers involved have not been punished.
