Colombian legislators were shot numerous times

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Forensic studies of the bodies of 11 Colombian state lawmakers killed in June while they were hostages of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, showed that each was shot ‘an average of eight to 10 times’ and that evidence was ‘manipulated’ by the leftist rebels, according to Colombian officials.

An international forensic commission formed after the FARC announced that the 11 had been killed in an unspecified ‘military confrontation’ delivered their findings Friday to the Organization of American States in Washington. Colombia’s OAS ambassador, Camilo Ospina, spoke to the group.

Nearly three months after the killings, the bodies of the victims were recovered by the International Committee of the Red Cross this month at a location that has not been disclosed. The dead were all members of the Valle del Cauca state assembly who were taken hostage in a daring 2002 raid of the legislative building. They were buried this week by their families, who spent five years hoping they would be released alive.

The case has shaken many Colombians, and it focused new attention on the plight of more than 3,000 kidnap victims, many of them being held by the FARC.

The government had been anxious to recover the bodies of the lawmakers and have forensic experts determine how they died. The rebels maintain they were caught in crossfire, while President Alvaro Uribe has maintained they were executed.

Other results showed that many of the bodies were shot ‘from below,’ Ospina said, which could mean they were fired on as they were on the ground. The commission also found that the bodies had been washed and reclothed after the killings, possibly to leave fewer ballistics clues.

Posted by Chris Kraul in Bogotá