BOGOTA, July 28 (Xinhuanet) -- US Democrat presidential candidate John Kerry and 22 senators this week called on Colombian President Alvaro Uribe to follow the recommendations of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) in dealing with violence in his country.

    Kerry and the senators send a letter to Uribe dated July 26, saying they appreciate Uribe's efforts in establishing a secure future for Colombians. But they affirmed that the level of violence was escalating in this country.

    The most urgent UNHCHR recommendation is to cut ties between the army and paramilitary forces engaged in abuses, by suspending, investigating and vigorously prosecuting officials engaged in such collaboration, said the letter.

    The letter was also signed by Kerry's running mate John Edwards.

    There was a direct link between the illegal paramilitary forcesand the Colombian army. The right-wing paramilitaries, the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), had acted in collaboration with and with the support of "diverse military authorities" in perpetrating the massacre.

    The paramilitaries, or the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), mainly funded by landowners and drug dealers, was set up in April 1997 to fight left-wing guerrillas who also tried to control plantations and sales of coca leaves, the raw material for cocaine. Enditem