The trail consists of eight set scenes that dramatize human rights issues soldiers deal with in combat, from treatment of guerrilla prisoners to the rights and customs of indigenous people.
"It's like a work of theater where soldiers play roles to learn what they have to do in given situations," said Col. Juan Carlos Gomez, human rights training chief for the Defense Ministry.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Friday, August 22, 2008 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 2 inches; 94 words Type of Material: Correction
Colombia abuses: An article in Thursday's Section A on human rights abuses by Colombia's armed forces said that a report by rights advocates alleged that as of June 2007, Colombian military courts had won only four convictions in more than 900 cases of alleged murder involving uniformed soldiers and police. The article should have included the following sentence: "A Colombian Defense Ministry official said that since the formation of a special prosecutor's office in mid-2007 to investigate alleged killings of civilians, 14 soldiers and police officers have been convicted in connection with those killings."
Some of the impetus for the policy changes came after a devastating report in October by human rights advocates that said the number of extrajudicial killings by the Colombian military and police over a five-year period ending June 2006 was 50% higher than during the preceding comparable period.
The study also alleged that as of June 2007, Colombian military courts had won only four convictions in more than 900 cases of alleged murder involving uniformed soldiers and police.
"The changes don't produce results overnight," Santos said. "We still have problems. You take a professional soldier who has 10, 12 or 14 years in the jungle and suddenly you ask him to work in a different way, it's a big effort and sometimes impossible.
"But the process continues, and the story today is different from that of a few years ago."
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chris.kraul@latimes.com
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Special correspondent Jenny Carolina Gonzalez contributed to this report.
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