213 Trade Unionists Murdered

Colombia is the most dangerous place on earth to be a trade union official, with 184 unionists assassinated there last year alone, the international trade union movement said yesterday.

Out of 213 trade unionists murdered around the world, Colombia, where the leftwing rebel movement, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, has been battling the state for 40 years, accounted for 184, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions said. It remained "the most dangerous place on earth for trade union activity".

In an annual report on labour violations around the world, the ICFTU singled out the Latin American country for "its appalling toll of murder, beatings, 'disappearances' and intimidation carried out with impunity".

Eighty union officials were forced to flee abroad last year, it added. There were 27 attempted assassinations, 189 death threats, nine "disappearances", 139 arbitrary arrests and 27 abductions.

Colombia has long topped the ICFTU's list of shame, but the Brussels-based organisation said the situation had deteriorated markedly, with fewer unionised workers and no attempt to bring the paramilitary killers to justice.

Colombia was not an isolated case, it said. Thailand, Egypt, Burma, China, Zimbabwe and Belarus were other countries which held trade union rights in disdain.