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: : Labor leaders and human-rights activists accused soft-drink giant Coca-Cola of hiring right-wing paramilitaries to kill, and kidnap union leaders at its Colombian plants and said they will sue the company to force it to stop. : : The lawsuit is to be filed Friday against Coca-Cola and Panamerican Beverages -- its principal bottler in Latin America -- in US federal court in Miami, lawyers for the United Steel Workers Union and the International Labor Rights Fund said at a news conference here. : : The filing on behalf of the Colombian union Sinaltrainal is timed to coincide with Colombia's Independence Day, the groups said in a statement. : : "There is no question that Coke knew about and benefited from the systematic repression of trade union rights at its bottling plant in Colombia, and the case will make the company accountable," said Terry Collingsworth, general counsel for the International Labor Rights Fund. : : Coca-Cola, through a spokesman, denied the accusations. : : "Coca-Cola denies any connection to any human-rights violation of this type," company spokesman Rafael Fernandez Quiros said by telephone from the company's Atlanta, Georgia headquarters, adding that the complaint "has no merit." : : Sinaltrainal accuses Coca-Cola of employing right-wing death squads to intimidate union leaders through murder, and kidnapping, according to a copy of the complaint made public Thursday. : : The complaint seeks both compensatory and punitive damages and an end to human-rights abuses by the company. : : More than 50 union leaders have been killed in Colombia this year, 128 last year and more than 1,500 in the past 10 years, according to the complaint. : : Also among the plaintiffs is the family of Isidro Segundo Gil, described in the complaint as a union leader murdered in 1996 by paramilitary forces while negotiating a contract for workers at a bottling plant in Carepa, Colombia. : : Gil was killed after he had received a threat from plant managers, according to the complaint. : : The complaint cites as justification a 1789 law allowing foreigners to seek justice in US courts for the actions of US nationals or US companies that violate international law. : : Colombia has been locked in a bloody, 37-year civil war, which pits leftist rebels against right-wing paramilitaries and the armed forces. : : The government of Andres Pastrana has denounced the paramilitaries for acts of violence against civilians they suspect are members or supporters of leftist antigovernment guerrilla groups. The United States has declared the group a terrorist organization

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