By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

          BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- In the first such verdict against a top
          Colombian officer in a human rights case, a former army general was
          convicted for failing to defend a town during a 1997 killing spree by a
          right-wing paramilitary death squad.

          Gen. Jaime Humberto Uscategui, handed a 40-month sentence by a
          military tribunal late Monday in the massacre of at least 22 people in the
          southern town of Mapiripan, had become a symbol of military impunity
          and connivance with rightist militias.

          Gunmen based in Colombia's north allegedly flew by private plane into a
          military-controlled airport on route to the town. They stayed for five
          days, slitting victims throats and dumping bodies in a river after accusing
          them of collaborating with leftist guerrillas.

          Human rights activists protested what they considered a light sentence.
          However, the government was likely to tout the conviction as progress in
          battling paramilitary violence and punishing military officers accused of
          paramilitary ties. Such progress is a condition for Colombia to receiving
          U.S. military aid under a $1.3 billion anti-narcotics package.

          Uscategui, an area military commander at the time of the killings, was
          convicted of ``omission'' -- meaning he was derelict in his duty for not
          sending troops to stop the killings. Homicide charges were dropped.

          A colonel who worked under Uscategui was also convicted, even though
          his testimony was crucial in gaining the general's conviction. Col. Hernan
          Orozco, who testified that he informed Uscategui while the killings were
          going on, received a 38-month sentence for omission.

          Another army colonel still faces trial in a civilian court on charges he
          helped organize the massacre. Two sergeants who worked at the military
          airport are also under arrest.

          The Mapiripan massacre in July 1997 was the first major strike into the
          guerrilla-dominated south by the United Self-Defense Forces of
          Colombia, or AUC. Backed by landowners and elements within the
          armed forces, the rightist force has massacred thousands in a
          scorched-earth campaign against the rebels.

          While the slaughter proceeded in Mapiripan, a town judge made
          repeated phone calls and sent written messages to military and other
          authorities asking for help. The pleas were ignored. The judge later fled
          Colombia out of fear for his life.

          Robin Kirk, a Colombia specialist at the U.S.-based group Human
          Rights Watch, called the conviction merely a ``slap on the hand'' for
          Uscategui. She said the military is still incapable of punishing its own and
          urged that such cases be tried in civilian courts.

          But Uscategui, who is appealing the conviction, received support
          Tuesday from the commander of the paramilitary forces. In a radio
          interview, AUC chief Carlos Castano said Uscategui is innocent and
          complained that ``men who defend the fatherland are taken to prison
          while guerrillas are attended to'' -- a reference to President Andres
          Pastrana's peace talks with rival leftist rebels.

          Also on Monday, the same day as Uscategui's conviction, gunmen
          assassinated a former federal human rights official who had probed
          paramilitary violence. Ivan Villamizar, killed in eastern Cucuta, had taken
          part in the investigation of a 1999 paramilitary massacre for an army
          general who was fired but not convicted.