Relatives of provincial lawmakers kidnapped by FARC rebels pray in Cali yesterday. Eleven of 12 provincial Colombian lawmakers kidnapped by leftist rebels in a brazen 2002 raid died last week in crossfire during a military rescue attempt, the guerrillas said yesterday.

BOGOTA (Reuters):

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe yesterday said rebels executed 11 kid-napped lawmakers last week, hours after a guerrilla group claimed they died during a raid on a secret jungle prison.

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, had said the 11 were killed in the crossfire of an attack by an unidentified military force on June 18.

But Uribe said government troops were nowhere near the area where the legislators were being held and called the FARC statement a ploy to cover up "this crime against humanity."

"No rescue mission was under way," Uribe said. "They were deliberately assassinated."

The 11 were among 12 pro-vincial lawmakers captured in 2002 in Valle del Cauca's capital city, Cali.

"The most likely scenario is the camp was being attacked by an illegal paramilitary group and that the FARC executed the hostages," said Pablo Casas, an analyst with independent Bogota think tank Security & Democracy.

In the 1980s, rich Colombians organised paramilitary militias to ensure protection from FARC kidnappings and land grabs. By the late 1990s, both groups had become involved in cocaine smuggling and took to murdering peasants suspected of cooperating with the other side.

A visibly pained Uribe ordered the national anthem played in a televised ceremony where he accused the 4-decade-old guerrilla army of the murders.

Family members of those reported dead appeared on television news programmes tearfully comforting each other.

Colombia was shocked when the FARC kidnapped the lawmakers from the provincial capitol building by masquerading as soldiers and calmly escorting them onto a bus, saying they were being evacuated due to a bomb scare.