Pubdate: Tue, 14 Jan 2003
Source: Dallas Morning News (TX)
Copyright: 2003 The Dallas Morning News
Contact:  http://www.dallasnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/117
Author: SUSANNAH A. NESMITH

U.S. HALTS AID TO COLOMBIA AIR FORCE UNIT

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - The United States has cut off aid to a Colombian 
Air Force unit suspected in the killing of 17 civilians more than four 
years ago, a U.S. official said.

A squadron of the First Aerial Command Unit was fighting rebels near Santo 
Domingo town in December 1998 when a bomb killed the civilians. The Air 
Force has said it was a rebel car bomb, but FBI forensic analysis concluded 
the shrapnel was ``consistent with'' a fragmentation bomb meant to be 
dropped from the air. Residents of Santo Domingo insist they were bombed 
from the air.

The State Department decided to revoke the human rights certification of 
the First Aerial Command Unit, a U.S. official said Monday on condition of 
anonymity.

The decertification means the unit can no longer receive U.S. aid or buy 
American munitions. It was not clear how much aid the unit had received.

Phil Chicola, the State Department's director of Andean affairs, told RCN 
television Monday that the U.S. government wants the Colombia to conclude 
its long investigation into the case.

``We are not convinced that the story that the air force has told so far is 
correct,'' Chicola said. ``We are not asking for anyone's head. We are not 
asking for anything more than a clear and transparent investigation.''

Colombian Defense Minister Martha Lucia Ramirez said her government was 
actively investigating the case.

Air Force commander Gen. Hector Velasco could not be reached for comment.

In October, the Colombian Inspector General's office called for a pilot and 
a crewman to be suspended for three months for the bombing. The attorney 
general's office and the military are conducting separate investigations.

The United States has given Colombia almost $2 billion in the past three 
years, mostly in military aid. Very little of that aid has gone to the 
First Aerial Command, Colombia's most elite air command.

Three U.S. citizens have been accused of pinpointing the targets for the 
bombing during a battle. One of the pilots was apparently an active-duty 
member of the U.S. Coast Guard, the Coast Guard has confirmed. The men had 
been working for a Florida-based company that provided aircraft services to 
oil companies in the region. They are not currently in Colombia.
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart