The Colombian government Tuesday once again blamed the country's largest anti-government group for the deaths of 11 regional deputies last July.
Luiz Carlos Restrepo, Colombia's high commissioner for peace, told local media that the 11 deputies, who had been held hostage by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) since 2002, were killed during a clash between rival FARC groups, and not in a failed rescue attempt by the Colombian military.
Restrepo said forensic investigation into computers seized from FARC has confirmed this conclusion.
The deputies, all from the Valle de Cauca state regional assembly, were kidnapped on April 11, 2002, after FARC triggered the evacuation of the assembly by faking a bomb threat.
The government and FARC have blamed each other for the deputies' deaths. The former says they were killed in a clash between rival rebel groups while the latter states they were killed during a botched government rescue attempt.
FARC handed over the bodies of the lawmakers to their families and peace groups months after revealing their deaths. All had died from gunshot wounds.
FARC still holds dozens of hostages, including French-Colombian citizen Ingrid Betancourt and three Americans.
The group unilaterally released six high-profile hostages this year in a deal brokered by Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez.
Colombia has been racked by a civil conflict between the government and the FARC since the mid-1960s, the longest in Latin America. The conflict is believed to lead to the deaths of more than 3,000 people each year.
Source:Xinhua
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