Government blames rebels

 BY JAVIER BAENA
 Associated Press

 BOGOTA -- Gunmen on Friday assassinated a Colombian lawmaker who headed
 a congressional peace committee, his mother, three bodyguards and two others
 at a roadblock in guerrilla-dominated southern Colombia.

 The killing of Rep. Diego Turbay in southern Caqueta State is the second attack
 in two weeks against a prominent civilian involved in peace efforts.

 The attackers stopped an armored four-wheel drive vehicle carrying Turbay to a
 mayor's inaugural and opened fire, killing seven of its occupants.

 ``They were forced to stop and executed,'' National Police Gen. Alfredo Salgado
 said.

 One man survived and was being questioned under tight protection in Bogotá, the
 capital, Salgado said.

 Salgado said the killings were ``apparently'' the work of the country's largest
 guerrilla faction, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC .

 Rival right-wing paramilitary militias -- who on Dec. 15 shot and wounded a labor
 leader involved in peace talks -- also operate in Caqueta, a major
 cocaine-producing province.

 There was no immediate denial or claim of responsibility from the FARC.

 In addition to Turbay and his mother, Ines Cote, the victims included three
 bodyguards, the driver of the Toyota vehicle and another man described by police
 as an architect.

 Salgado said the killings took place outside Doncello, a town on the highway
 between Caqueta's state capital, Florencia, and a large rebel enclave controlled
 by the FARC as part of peace negotiations with the government of President
 Andrés Pastrana.