by Our Foreign Desk

COLOMBIAN authorities’ accusation that Marxist rebels made farmers drive the police out of their village are false, a UN envoy said on Sunday.

Hundreds of riot police were sent to take control of the south-western village of El Mango on Saturday, four days after residents burnt down a makeshift barracks and demanded that police leave.

Authorities accused the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) of coercing the villagers into expelling the police.

UN human rights representative in Colombia Todd Howland said the accusation was unfair.

“People feel they receive very little benefit because police in these conflict zones don’t actually do police work,” he said.

“They’re sandbagged in. It’s like having a military base in town.”

Residents said that the police had relocated their barracks outside the town after thousands protested.

But police General Rodolfo Palomino insisted on Sunday that security forces had returned for good.

Residents have threatened to abandon the village if police do not withdraw.

This has not been the government’s only recent false allegation against Farc.

On Saturday, Colombia’s second-largest guerrilla force the National Liberation Army (ELN) claimed responsibility for the downing of an army helicopter on Monday last week, which the government had originally blamed on Farc.

Despite two years of talks with Farc in the Cuban capital Havana, aiming to end the five-decade civil war, the government has continued its military campaign against the group.

Last week Farc chief negotiator Ivan Marquez called for a truce as a crucial step towards a peace deal.