MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Killings of civilians, forces Colombia's top general to resign

General Mario Montoya resigned

Colombia's top army commander resigned following allegations that soldiers killed civilians in an effort to inflate military successes in a war against rebel groups.

General Mario Montoya announced Tuesday he will step down as head of the army. He gave no reason for his decision to leave the military after 39 years of service. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe named General Oscar Gonzalez as Montoya's replacement. Mr. Uribe described Montoya as one of the country's best generals. Montoya's resignation came days after President Uribe fired at least two dozen army officers, including three generals, following an investigation into suspected executions initially reported as combat deaths. The dismissals last month followed public outcry over the deaths of a group of young men who disappeared several weeks ago from a poor Bogota suburb. Their remains were later discovered in mass graves in the country's northeast. The civilians were originally declared to be rebels killed during fighting. Human rights groups say the army has regularly executed civilians and passed them off as slain guerrillas to inflate their tallies of defeated enemy fighters. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, has denounced what she called the Colombian army's "widespread and systematic" killing of innocent civilians. She has urged Bogota to investigate such killings. The human rights group, Amnesty International, has urged the United States and other countries to suspend military aid to Colombia until Colombia can guarantee its security forces are not engaged in civilian killings. A free trade agreement with United States has been repeatedly stalled by the Democrat congress precisely on grounds of repeated human rights abuses.