Eleven Colombian hostages killed in attack-rebels

By Hugh Bronstein BOGOTA, June 28 (Reuters) - Eleven Colombian lawmakers kidnapped by leftist rebels in a brazen 2002 raid were killed last week when an unidentified group attacked the camp where they were being held, the guerrillas said on Thursday. The eleven were among 12 provincial lawmakers captured more than five years ago by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, in Valle del Cauca's capital city Cali. "Eleven deputies of the Valle assembly, who we took in April 2002, died in the cross fire when an unidentified military group attacked the camp where they were," according to a statement from the FARC. It said the raid occurred on June 18. The government said it did not know the location of the 12 hostages and did not know of any attempt to rescue them. "There was no rescue order," Interior Minister Carlos Holguin said. Fabiola Perdomo, the wife of one of those reported dead, tearfully told local radio she was awaiting confirmation of the news. Pablo Casas, an analyst with independent Bogota think tank Seguridad & Democracia, said, "It looks like these people died in a random clash with an illegal paramilitary group. "But there is no doubt that the FARC was responsible for the lives of the people they kidnapped, so the fault remains with them," he added. In the 1980s, rich Colombians organized paramilitary militias to ensure protection from FARC kidnappings and land grabs. By the late 1990s, both groups, labeled terrorists by Washington, had become involved in cocaine smuggling and took to murdering peasants suspected of cooperating with the other side. A BRAZEN RAID Colombia was shocked when the FARC kidnapped the lawmakers from the provincial capitol building by masquerading as soldiers and calmly escorting them onto a bus, saying they were being evacuated due to a bomb scare. The 12 were among about 60 high-profile hostages, including three American defense contractors and French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt, whom President Alvaro Uribe wanted to swap for guerrillas held in government jails. But Uribe and the FARC have yet to agree on terms for negotiating the hostage exchange. Betancourt was taken by the guerrillas during her 2002 presidential campaign. The Americans were captured the following year while on an anti-drug mission. Colombia is the world's biggest producer of cocaine. Its four-decade-old guerrilla war kills thousands and forces tens of thousands from their homes each year. The government blames the FARC for a series of bombs that killed three people, including a 3-year-old girl, and injured dozens in the Pacific port city of Buenaventura last weekend. Uribe, whose father was killed by the guerrillas more than 20 years ago, said the attacks reinforced his refusal to grant the FARC's demand for a safe-haven area to negotiate a hostage swap. He said the option of military rescue remained open. The 17,000-member FARC was organized in the 1960s to force land reforms and other measures meant to close the gap that separates rich and poor in this Andean country. But even left-wing politicians say the group has scant popular support.