Just a small request

From the Colombian office of the UN High Commission for Human Rights to the Colombian government and military: could you perhaps stop killing people?

The Colombian office of the U.N. High Commission for Human Rights has asked the government and its military to ''clarify and put an end to the practice of alleged extra-judicial executions'' that may have left as many as 80 dead.

The bodies of 45 young men have been found in the past week alone in unmarked graves, 23 of them in northern Santander province, sparking a furor in this violence-riddled South American nation.

Although the identity of the killers has not been determined, Colombian authorities have said they are investigating the possible existence of death squads within the military that portray the dead as enemy combatants killed in firefights.

The "fake uniform" or "pretend regular people are enemy combatants" trick is an old one, but never seems to go out of style.