BOGOTA, Colombia — Frustrated by the unrelenting violence that grips Colombia, the government is planning to legalize private security groups in the countryside as a way for rural citizens to protect themselves.

But the proposal has outraged human rights experts, who fear the private groups will turn into paramilitary death squads like those that have been responsible for much of the violence.

The security plan raises questions about the ability of President Ernesto Samper's government to impose law and order and highlights Colombia's poor human rights record.

Critics say the proposed security squads, intended to protect ranchers from kidnaping and theft, could easily degenerate into lawless organizations dedicated to assassinating peasants and suspected Communists. The new squads could resemble those that have killed thousands of Colombians since the late 1980s.

"It makes no sense that a state unable to control the use of violence would make the problem worse by creating such groups," said Juan Gabriel Gomez, a lawyer for the Colombia section of the Andean Commission of Jurists, a human rights organization.

The commission's section on Colombia estimates that 30% of politically motivated killings with identified culprits are carried out by death squads and paramilitary groups, often with links to the military and police.

There are an estimated 3,000 political killings each year in Colombia, more than the total number of people killed in Gen. Augusto Pinochet's "dirty war" against communism in Chile.

Samper has taken numerous steps aimed at improving Colombia's human rights image.

He got Congress to approve the Second Geneva Protocol on the treatment of civilians in time of war and said he would introduce human rights courses and offices in military garrisons.

Yet, recently released reports by international agencies note widespread impunity for police and army crimes.

The most recent report by Human Rights Watch/Americas says police contribute to a per-capita murder rate for children eight times that of the United States. Police involved in such crimes rarely receive anything more than dismissal, the report says.

It recommends, among other measures, that the government punish "civilians and security forces who abet, deploy or participate in paramilitary groups."

But the government also faces powerful pressures at home.