A Colombian lawmaker involved in government talks to end the nation's civil war was shot dead Friday along with his mother and three bodyguards, in slayings the government condemned as "atrocious."
Diego Turbay, 40, an opposition lawmaker and member of the peace commission of the lower house of congress, was shot in the head in a roadside ambush by an armed group who forced him to leave his armored vehicle, police said.
Turbay, a member of the Liberal Party was slain along with his mother Ines Cote, and five other people, including the three bodyguards, police said.
The government's High Commissioner for Peace, Camilo Gomez, condemned the killings calling them "atrocious".
"I want to repudiate most emphatically this atrocious act in which several people were slain in a quite terrifying manner," Gomez said.
"It is a despicable crime ... that not only the government but all the Colombian people must reject," he said.
But Gomez declined to attribute blame to the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrilla group.
"The relevant investigations are taking place, I will not say anything on hypothesis, but only on facts that come up from the investigation," Gomez said.
"Obviously the investigation will get to the bottom of the matter, the government has put in place the necessary mechanisms to move forward with the investigation and to clear up this ... terrible crime."
The police and army earlier Friday blamed a FARC commando unit for the killings, which occurred on the same day federal authorities released an official tally of the carnage across the country over the past year.
The government figures showed that some 38,820 Colombians died in violent circumstances in 2000 -- a 10 percent increase over last year.
The figures are the latest evidence that four decades of bloodshed in the country's civil war -- pitting thousands of well-armed and well-funded Marxist revolutionaries against right-wing paramilitaries -- could be far from over.
Colombia's Institute of Legal Medicine said 66 percent of violent deaths this year were the result of homicide, and noted that 80 percent were attributable to firearms.
Turbay's late brother, Rodrigo Turbay, also a lawmaker, died a year ago after being kidnapped by Marxist guerrillas.
The assassination of Turbay occurred between the towns of El Doncello and Puerto Rico -- the latter location, some 670 kilometers (416 miles) south of the capital Bogota.
Among the most prominent of the groups that have taken up arms is the FARC -- the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, a Marxist rebel group which controls a 42,000 square-kilometer (16,000 square-mile) demilitarized zone in southern Colombia.
While it was unclear who was responsible for Turbay's death, the FARC, the most prolific perpetrator of kidnappings with some 12,000 rebel soldiers carrying out around 3,000 of them each year -- was among the chief suspects.
In Washington, the US State Department expressed shock at Turbay's assassination.
"We condemn that senseless violence. This cannot be helpful to the peace process," a State Department spokesman said, speaking on background -- BOGOTA (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
