BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - Gunmen shot and killed a Roman Catholic nun active in
human rights work in a Pacific port town, authorities said Thursday.
Yolanda Ceron directed a church human rights team in the town of Tumaco, where
she was killed Wednesday, according to the governor of Narino state, Parmenio
Cuellar.
Officials said they had no suspects.
But the London-based human rights organization Amnesty International accused a
right-wing paramilitary group that has previously targeted human rights workers.
``There's no doubt that Yolanda was killed for her work in the defense of human
rights,'' Amnesty said in a statement Thursday, accusing the right-wing United
Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, or AUC.
Amnesty said Ceron, a Colombian, was working to help people who had been
victimized by government troops or paramilitary fighters. The group criticized
the government for failing to take sufficient actions against paramilitaries,
who are known to be expanding their influence in Tumaco, some 325 miles southwest
of Bogota.
The AUC is accused of widespread human rights violations in a war against
suspected guerrilla supporters. The group is also on the U.S. government's list
of international terrorist organizations. Colombia's U.S.-backed military has
been accused of collaborating with the paramilitaries.
The South American country's 37-year civil war kills an estimated 3,500 people
every year.