The local U.N. human rights office urged the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, to accept responsibility for the Aug. 24 massacre and to order its fighters to refrain from attacking civilian targets.

The workers were targeted because they sold their product to the FARC's rivals, the right-wing paramilitaries, officials said.

The ICC, based in The Hague, Netherlands, has jurisdiction over war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. It is mandated to intervene when states are unwilling or unable to dispense justice.

It asked Colombian President Alvaro Uribe in March for more information on alleged atrocities, saying it had received unofficial reports of thousands of killings, disappearances and kidnappings since November 2002.

Colombia has been embroiled in a 41-year-old civil war that pits two leftist rebel armies against a handful of right-wing paramilitary factions and government forces, killing more than 3,000 people every year.

The Japan Times Weekly: Sept. 3, 2005
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