By TIM JOHNSON
             Herald Staff Writer

             BOGOTA, Colombia -- All the warring parties in Colombia's conflict -- from the
             military to rightist militias and leftist insurgencies -- systematically commit heinous
             abuses and violate laws of war, a U.S. human rights group said Thursday.

             Moreover, all factions employ terror against civilians, forcing as many as one
             million people to flee their homes, Human Rights Watch/Americas said in a
             225-page report, Without Quarter, Colombia and International Humanitarian Law.

             ``A willingness to commit atrocities is among the most striking features of
             Colombia's war,'' the report said.

             Published on the eve of government peace talks with two leftist insurgencies, the
             report culminates an unusual two-year study by the human rights group that was
             prompted by concern over systematic abuses in the nation, the group's executive
             director, Jose Miguel Vivanco, said.

             ``Levels of impunity that exist in Colombia are incomparable with the rest of the
             hemisphere,'' Vivanco said at a press conference.

             Pledges ignored

             All warring parties pledge respect for treaties and international norms governing
             armed conflict, the report notes, but no faction complies:

               The army confuses civilians with guerrillas and gives continued logistical support
             to rightist paramilitary militias responsible for a majority of the 185 massacres
             tallied in Colombia in 1997, the report said.

               Right-wing paramilitary groups target entire villages suspected of having contact
             with guerrillas and employ such violence ``that it can only be interpreted as
             intended to instill terror,'' the group said.

               The largest and oldest leftist insurgency, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of
             Colombia (FARC), abducted at least 408 people for ransom last year, the report
             said, and carried out 12 massacres and numerous executions, it said. Further, it
             booby-trapped bodies of some of its enemies with bombs.

               A smaller insurgency, the National Liberation Army (ELN), attacked hospitals,
             set off car bombs, executed captured soldiers, sowed land mines in populated
             areas and despoiled the environment with frequent attacks on oil pipelines, all in
             violation of international law, it said.

             Children enlisted

             In a chilling assertion, the study said all warring sides employ or recruit minors as
             combatants -- including the armed forces and police. Citing official statistics, the
             report said 15,657 minors were serving in the police or armed forces as of May 8,
             22 percent of them 15 or 16 years of age.

             ``Human Rights Watch has received abundant information indicating that all three
             guerrilla groups continue to recruit children and use them as combatants,'' it said.
             ``The FARC, for instance, has even carried out recruitment campaigns in
             elementary schools and children's homes, promising to send families a regular
             salary.''

             The most egregious cases, though, appear in the ELN, where one source was
             cited as saying, ``It is common to see a unit with 15 adult commanders leading up
             to 65 child soldiers.''
 

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