Air force chief denies bombing of civilians

BOGOTA, Colombia -- The commander of the Colombian air force announced his retirement Tuesday, saying he leaves with "a clean conscience" despite U.S. complaints that he stalled probes into an alleged air force attack that killed 17 civilians.

Colombian Defense Minister Martha Lucia Ramirez said Tuesday that the United States had pushed for Gen. Hector Fabio Velasco's ouster, but insisted that was not the reason he quit. U.S. diplomats in Bogota have privately complained that Colombia was stalling in its investigation of the bombing of the eastern village of Santo Domingo in December 1998. Seventeen civilians were killed.

Velasco had said the deaths were caused by a rebel truck bomb, even though an FBI forensic analysis concluded the shrapnel was consistent with a fragmentation bomb dropped from the air.

The case has been a sticking point in normally smooth relations between the United States and Colombia.

Washington froze aid to the air force unit, the First Aerial Command Unit, earlier this year. It said the move was aimed at promoting a more thorough and credible investigation into the deaths.

Velasco said he decided to retire to allow other senior officers to move up the chain of command. His resignation takes effect in September, and he will then become ambassador to Israel.

"I do not feel pressured," he told reporters at the Defense Ministry. "What one can be pressured by is one's conscience, and I have a clean conscience."

The U.S. government has given billions of dollars in aid and training to the Colombian military to support its war against leftist rebels and to wipe out cocaine and heroin production. Velasco said Washington was misinformed about the Santo Domingo deaths.

A Colombian military helicopter allegedly dropped the bomb during a battle between Colombian security forces and leftist rebels in the village. Velasco denied he had been involved in a cover-up of one of the worst human-rights cases in recent years in this South American country.

"There is no proof, that I know of, that directly incriminates the FAC (Colombian Air Force) and because of that ... I will wait for a fair ruling from the state prosecutor's office," Velasco told RCN radio on Tuesday.

Ramirez, the defense minister, said Washington's pressure was not behind Velasco's departure.

"There has been pressure from the United States," Ramirez said. "But that wasn't the reason for his retirement."

U.S. Embassy officials had no immediate comment.

Velasco's announcement comes one week after President Bush agreed resume U.S.-supported drug surveillance flights over Colombia after a 28-month suspension.

The flights were stopped in April 2001 after a Peruvian fighter jet acting on U.S. radar intelligence shot down a missionary plane, killing a U.S. missionary and her child.

The resumed drug-flight interdictions over Colombia came after new safeguards were implemented.