69 activists killed in Colombia in 2015: UN

BOGOTA: Sixty-nine human rights activists, community leaders and politicians have been killed in Colombia this year, despite efforts to stop decades of violence wracking the country, the UN said Wednesday.
"We have registered 69 murders so far this year. That is very alarming," said Fabrizio Hochschild, the United Nations resident coordinator in Colombia.
"At this point last year there were only 35. That means the trend is on track to double, and that is a very major, very unfortunate setback in terms of protecting social leaders and community leaders," he told a press conference in Bogota.
The UN counted 31 murdered social or political leaders and 38 murdered rights activists, the latter statistic compiled by local watchdog group We Are Defenders.
Hochschild said leftist leaders at the local level are particularly threatened in the build-up to regional elections in October.
Black communities in the country's Pacific region have also been the target of "many threats and sometimes homicides" by armed groups in the area, he said.
Colombia is the scene of a half-century guerilla war that has drawn in leftist rebels, right-wing paramilitaries and drug gangs.
The government spends more than US$200 million (RM400 million) a year guarding some 7,500 politicians, journalists, activists and others deemed to be at risk of kidnapping or assassination by the various armed groups.
The largest guerilla group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), has been holding peace talks with the government since 2012.
The second-largest group, the National Liberation Army, has held preliminary talks with the government but has not yet joined a formal peace process. – AFP