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The indictment of Colombian paramilitary leader Carlos Castaño represents an extremely promising development for human rights, Human Rights Watch said today. Reacting to Tuesday's announcement by U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft that Castaño and two other paramilitary leaders had been indicted on drug trafficking charges, Human Rights Watch called on the Colombian government to ensure the men were brought to justice.

"Castaño and his abusive paramilitary fighters are implicated in the most horrific atrocities of the past decade in Colombia," said José Miguel Vivanco, executive director of Human Rights Watch's Americas Division. "His prosecution, and that of other top paramilitary leaders, would be a major advance for human rights."

The most important leader of the United Self Defense Forces of Colombia (Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia, AUC), Castaño has openly acknowledged involvement in a number of killings. There are well over a dozen outstanding arrest warrants against him in Colombia for massacres, killings and the kidnapping of human rights defenders and a Colombian senator, among other crimes.

In a recent letter to U.S. Ambassador Anne Patterson, Castaño reportedly promised to cooperate with the U.S. indictment. According to press accounts, Castaño stated that he would voluntarily hand himself over for prosecution in the United States.

Also indicted were AUC military leader Salvatore Mancuso and AUC member Juan Carlos Sierra-Ramirez. The AUC's forces, responsible for the worst abuses of the country's armed conflict, consist of an estimated 11,000 armed and trained fighters. Benefiting from the tacit and sometimes active support of the Colombian military, the AUC maintains permanent bases and roadblocks in Colombia and moves troops around the country with apparent ease.

"Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has promised to take effective action against paramilitary abuses," said Vivanco. "Arresting Castaño and facilitating his prosecution would be a good way to show that he is serious about this effort."

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