Colombia ends truce with FARC dissidents
Guyana fatal fire may have been 'malicious'
Colombian President Gustavo Petro on Monday suspended a truce with leftist guerrillas in four flashpoint regions after authorities accused rebels of killing four Indigenous children.
Leftist Petro said the bilateral ceasefire "is suspended and all offensive operations are reactivated" in the regions of Meta, Caqueta, Guaviare and Putumayo.
Four children and teenagers from the Murui Indigenous community were executed in southern Colombia by dissidents of the now-disarmed Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels, authorities said Sunday.
The regions form a stronghold of FARC dissident guerrillas who refused to join a 2016 peace accord that saw most of the rebels lay down their arms and form a communist political party.
The rebel Estado Mayor Central responded to the news with a scathing attack on the government.
"The unilateral ceasefire will unleash war and the numbers of dead, injured and prisoners will multiply," the group said in a statement.
But the move was praised by the governor of Meta, Juan Guillermo Zuluaga.
"The patience was going to run out. The ceasefire suspension is not just for the vile murder of four children, but also for the kidnappings, extortion and other criminal behavior that never ends," Zuluaga wrote on Twitter.
The four Murui minors were executed on the border between the southern departments of Caqueta and Amazonas after defecting from a dissident faction of FARC called the Carolina Ramirez front, the country's human rights ombudsman said in a Sunday statement.
The front, which belongs to the Estado Mayor Central, was among the groups that adhered to a ceasefire proposed by the government several months ago and were set to begin new peace talks soon.
"Recruiting and killing children and adolescents from Indigenous communities are not exactly gestures of goodwill to achieve peace. In addition to being evident violations of international humanitarian law," the ombudsman noted.
Petro slammed the murders as "an atrocious crime, a blow to peace" and warned of "measures against these actions."
Complicating the situation on the ground, Colombian security forces and emergency personnel in an unrelated development are searching in the same region for four other Indigenous children who went missing ago after apparently surviving a small plane crash three weeks ago on the edge of the Amazon jungle.
Government under fire
Late last year Petro announced a GEORGETOWN The fire at a bilateral ceasefire with numerous schoolgirls' dormitory that killed armed groups. 19 people in Guyana may have
But three of those truces have been started "maliciously," police now ended following the breakdown said on Monday, as anger grew in of the peace process with the the small South American country National Liberation Army guerrillas the day after the blaze. and the Gulf Clan drug traffickers. Sunday's inferno gutted a building
"If the ceasefire is not effective in housing girls aged 11-12 and certain territories in protecting the 16-17. lives and integrity of the population, Guyana Police Commissioner then there is no sense in persisting Clifton Hicken said during a press with it," Petro wrote on Twitter. conference Monday afternoon that
Since coming to power last year, an "initial investigation suggests... Petro has tried to negotiate peace that (the fire) was maliciously set." with the country's various armed "Our investigation is continugroups in a marked shift from his ing," Hicken told reporters, joined conservative predecessor's more by President Irfaan Ali, who declared bellicose approach to resolving the three days of national conflict. mourning.
This policy has triggered a hailstorm No suspects have yet been identiof criticism of Petro. The fied, Hicken added, though he told opposition has branded the armed AFP he expects to have more information forces too weak to prevent armed in the next 48 hours. groups dictating the terms of peace. "Fourteen youths died at the
"The main person responsible scene, while five died at the Mahfor the escalation in violence is dia District Hospital," according Petro, who under the deceit of to a statement from the fire department. 'total peace' has left Colombia in the hands of terrorists," said rightThe government had previously wing opposition senator Maria said 20 people died in the blaze at Fernanda Cabal. the Mahdia Secondary School in
Colombia has suffered six dethe central part of the country. cades of armed conflict between Guyana, with a population of the state and various groups of 800,000, is South America's only left-wing guerrillas, right-wing English-speaking nation. It is a paramilitaries and drug traffickers. former Dutch and British colony
Petro, the first leftist president which recently discovered it holds in Colombia's history, has opened the world's largest per capita oil talks with many of the armed reserves. groups, hoping to put an end to the After the weekend tragedy, more violence in the country. AFP than a dozen children received hospital treatment locally while six serious cases were airlifted to the capital Georgetown.
"Two children remain in critical condition, while four are nursing severe injuries as a result of the incident," added the fire brigade.
There were 63 pupils inside the building when the fire broke out.
"This is a major disaster. It is horrible, it is painful," Ali said on Sunday night.
Ali said he had ordered arrangements to be made in Georgetown's two major hospitals "so that every single child who requires attention be given the best possible opportunity to get that attention."
At Monday's press conference Hicken said autopsies had already been performed on the bodies of at least six of the victims, and that all of them would undergo DNA testing.
'Pain, agony, trauma'
Around 50 relatives and friends of the victims demonstrated on Monday in Chenapau, a village close to Mahdia that is home to many of the school's pupils.
"The sheer pain, the agony, the trauma," Michael Mcgarrell, who lost two nieces in the blaze, told AFP by telephone. "Who will be held responsible?"
Protesters held up banners demanding justice and compensation, and criticizing the fact that the dormitory had barred windows.
"Why are school children grilled up in death traps? What are we going to tell the parents?" said Mcgarrell, an activist with the Amerindian People's Association (APA) that is often at odds with the government over land rights.
"Firefighters did manage to rescue some 20 students by breaking holes in the north-eastern wall of the building," the fire service said.
Private and military planes have been sent to Mahdia, located about 200 kilometers (125 miles) south of Georgetown, as the region is affected by heavy rains.
At least one plane with three evacuees arrived back in Georgetown, according to an AFP journalist.
The government said officials were supporting efforts at Ogle airport in the capital to "receive the critical patients and coordinate an emergency plan of action."
"A full-scale medical emergency action plan has been launched," it added.
Natasha Singh-lewis, an opposition MP, called for an investigation into the fire's cause.
"We need to understand how this most horrific and deadly incident occurred and take all necessary measures to prevent such a tragedy from happening again," she said.
Among the poorest nations in South America, Guyana hopes the discovery of oil will help spur development. The country also boasts the second-highest percentage of forest cover on earth.