Colombia says rebel group sought to make 'dirty bomb'
By Simon Romero
CARACAS, Venezuela: Colombia ratcheted up accusations against the FARC rebel group on Tuesday, saying Colombian forces had found new evidence that the rebels had been seeking the ingredients to make a radioactive dirty bomb.
The accusations, made by Colombia's vice president, Francisco Santos, at a United Nations disarmament meeting in Geneva, represent a sharp escalation in rhetoric surrounding the three-country dispute involving Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador, which began over the weekend when Colombian forces hunted down and killed a Colombian guerrilla leader on Ecuadorean soil.
Material found on a laptop computer recovered in that raid provided the basis for Santos's accusations about a dirty bomb — a weapon that combines highly radioactive material with conventional explosives to disperse deadly dust that people would inhale.
"This shows that these terrorist groups, supported by the economic power provided by drug trafficking, constitute a grave threat not just to our country but to the entire Andean region and Latin America," Santos said in a statement that was posted in Spanish on the disarmament conference's web site. The rebels were "negotiating to get radioactive material, the primary base for making dirty weapons of destruction and terrorism."
By Simon Romero
CARACAS, Venezuela: Colombia ratcheted up accusations against the FARC rebel group on Tuesday, saying Colombian forces had found new evidence that the rebels had been seeking the ingredients to make a radioactive dirty bomb.
The accusations, made by Colombia's vice president, Francisco Santos, at a United Nations disarmament meeting in Geneva, represent a sharp escalation in rhetoric surrounding the three-country dispute involving Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador, which began over the weekend when Colombian forces hunted down and killed a Colombian guerrilla leader on Ecuadorean soil.
Material found on a laptop computer recovered in that raid provided the basis for Santos's accusations about a dirty bomb — a weapon that combines highly radioactive material with conventional explosives to disperse deadly dust that people would inhale.
"This shows that these terrorist groups, supported by the economic power provided by drug trafficking, constitute a grave threat not just to our country but to the entire Andean region and Latin America," Santos said in a statement that was posted in Spanish on the disarmament conference's web site. The rebels were "negotiating to get radioactive material, the primary base for making dirty weapons of destruction and terrorism."
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