DOZENS KILLED IN COLOMBIA ATTACK

The authorities in Colombia say at least 60 civilians have been killed and
about 100 others injured in a bomb attack by suspected rebels in a remote
western province.

According to witnesses, the victims were killed when guerrillas from the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) set off a mortar bomb in a
crowded church in the town of Bojaya, in the Choco province.

Residents are thought to have sought refuge inside the church to escape
fierce fighting between the left-wing rebels and right-wing paramilitaries.

The scene was one of utter devastation. Local government spokesman, Jorge
Caicedo, described the killings as a national tragedy and called for urgent
humanitarian help.

Correspondents say it is one of the deadliest attacks by the FARC on
civilians in recent years.

Fight For Lucrative Trade

For several days the FARC guerrillas have been fighting the paramilitaries
of the United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC) in the dense jungle
around the town of Bojaya.

Then the fighting moved in the town itself, and the mayor gathered the
people into what he thought were the safest places - the church and
adjoining square.

The Colombian human rights ombudsman, Eduardo Cifuentes, said that despite
advance warnings that the local community was vulnerable to attack, no
troop reinforcements had been sent to the area.

The target for the illegal armies is the River Atrato that runs through
Choco and on which the town of Bojaya sits.

The BBC correspondent in Colombia says that whoever controls the river also
controls the lucrative trade in drugs, arms and contraband that makes its
way to and from Panama and the Caribbean coast.

At least 35,000 people have been killed over the last decade of violence in
Colombia, and about two million people have fled the country.