16 Colombian reporters flee after death threats

NEWSDESK 31 Mar 2003 21:01:11 GMT

BOGOTA, Colombia, March 31 (Reuters) - Sixteen Colombian journalists working in a region where U.S. special forces are providing anti-guerrilla training said they were fleeing to the capital Bogota on Monday after receiving death threats from gunmen, a media rights group and colleagues said.

Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said leftist rebels and right-wing militias fighting in Colombia's four-decade-old war had separately declared the journalists in the eastern, oil-rich province of Arauca "military targets" and warned them they should leave or face being killed.

Rodrigo Avila, a correspondent for Caracol TV and one of the journalists threatened, said local radio stations in Arauca were only playing music and airing cultural programs.

"The rebels' idea is to silence the press in the capital of Arauca and unfortunately they are achieving it. We are forced to shut up and find a solution," Avila told reporters.

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as the FARC, produced a list of eight journalists, while the right wing paramilitaries, known as the AUC, threatened another eight, and also named two who had previously been killed.

One of the men named, Eduardo Alfonso, was gunned down and killed two weeks ago by suspected far-right paramilitaries as he arrived for work at an Arauca radio station. His boss, Efrain Varela, was killed last year.

War-ravaged Colombia is one of the most dangerous places in the world for reporters, according to media watch groups.

President Alvaro Uribe late last year declared Arauca, a steamy area of savannas and swamps on the border with Venezuela, a special war zone, giving security forces extra powers to control movements and check identities.

The measures, which have been strongly criticized by rights groups, have had little effect on violence in the province, which has been hit by a rebel car-bombing campaign.

About 70 U.S. special forces are in Arauca province training Colombian troops to combat guerrillas and defend a key oil pipeline.

Local police say they do not have enough bodyguards to protect the threatened journalists.

"We ask the government to guarantee the security of the journalists threatened in the province of Arauca," RSF said in a news release. "The absence of journalists is an open door for more abuses."

Journalists in Arauca routinely face harassment and threats from rebels and militias fighting for control of oil proceeds and the booming drug trade.

In January, rebels held a British reporter and an American photographer hostage for almost two weeks, in a kidnapping which drew worldwide attention. Attacks on local reporters hardly ever make international headlines.