Most of the 33 British passengers on May's ill-fated aid flotilla to Gaza have asked to give oral testimony to the Turkel Commission to Examine the Maritime Incident, a lawyer acting on their behalf said yesterday. The group say they are resisting what they see as efforts by the commission, appointed by the Israeli government, to belittle their evidence by having them submit only very basic information about their experiences. Daniel Machover, who is representing 29 of the passengers, said the Israeli Foreign Ministry approached the British Foreign Office Oct. 21 and gave them a four-day deadline to gather basic information to be passed on to the commission. Machover said the passengers see the rushed request as a "calculated snub...not a genuine effort to welcome their evidence." (Ha'aretz, Oct. 22)

Israel has started building at least 544 apartments since a 10-month construction freeze expired late last month. Palestinians charge that construction in the settlements is aimed at preventing the establishment of a Palestinian state, and the issue has brought recently renewed US-brokered peace talks to a halt. In a statement, UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace Robert Serry called the construction activity "alarming," saying it is "illegal under international law" and "will only further undermine trust."

After almost 20 years, a former Colombian army officer was sentenced Oct. 14 to 44 years in prison for his role in the deaths of over 245 civilians in the Trujillo Massacres between 1986 and 1994. Retired major Alirio Antonio Urena, a School of the Americas graduate, was a commander of an army brigade that evidently collaborated with paramilitaries in Valle del Cauca department at the time of the killings. The dead included Tiberio Fernández, a popular Catholic priest and political organizer whose body was found castrated and decapitated in the Río Cauca. The verdict was the first by the Colombian justice system in the notorious case, which was reopened in 1991 after justice officials had initially absolved the Urena and his co-defendants.

The severed head of Rolando Flores, a Mexican investigator looking into the disappearance of Texas reporter David Hartley, was delivered to authorities in northern Mexico's Tamaulipas state, according to Sheriff Sigifredo González of Zapata County, who is leading the investigation on the US side. Hartley was attacked by gunmen in speedboats while using Jet Skis on Sept. 30 with his wife on Falcon Lake, which stretches into Mexico. His body has still not been found. Flores, commander of state investigators in Ciudad Miguel Aleman, was part of a group assigned to the Hartley case. A spokesman for the Tamaulipas prosecutor's office confirmed that Flores had been killed, but said the death was unrelated to the Hartley investigation. (AP, Oct. 14; MSNBC, Oct. 13)

Unknown assailants on a motorcycle assassinated Colombian indigenous leader Rodolfo Maya Aricape as he left a community meeting in the hamlet of López Adentro, Caloto village, the Regional Indigenous Council of Cauca (CRIC) announced Oct. 15. The statement said Maya Aricape had received death threats last month from armed groups operating in the region. It said the slaying was "not an isolated incident but is part of a strategy of intimidation" by armed groups to involve indigenous communities in the war and seize their lands. (Notimex, ACIN, Oct. 15)

Survival International is warning the United Nations of massive oil operations in the northern Peruvian Amazon that could decimate uncontacted tribal people. "By permitting companies to operate in this region Peru's government is flagrantly violating international law. Survival believes it very important to investigate this situation as soon as possible and for Peru's government to prohibit the companies from working there. If that is not done, some of the world's most vulnerable citizens could be wiped out," said a letter from Survival to the UN's Special Rapporteur on indigenous peoples, Prof. James Anaya.

An Israeli military court on Oct. 11 sentenced non-violent protest organizer Abdallah Abu Rahmah to 12 months imprisonment, with a six-month suspended sentence. Abu Rahmah has been in an Israeli jail since December, and was convicted in August of incitement, and organizing and participating in protests in the West Bank village of Bil'in. Ofer military court also ordered Abu Rahmah to pay a 5,000 shekel fine (almost $1,400).

Former leader of the Inter-Ethnic Alliance for the Development of the Peruvian Rainforest (AIDESEP) Alberto Pizango held a press conference in Puno to announce his candidacy for president of Peru, with the Alliance for the Alternative for Humanity (APHU). The leader of the Regional Coordinator of Communities Affected by Mining (CORECAMI), Pablo Salas Charca, was on hand to pledge his support for Pizango. (Generaccion, Los Andes, Sept. 22)