Extrajudicial killings in Colombia between 2002 and 2008 reach 6,400 people
Kanako Mita and Lee Jay Walker
Modern Tokyo Times
The military peace deal to solve the protracted conflict in Colombia was signed in 2016. However, for many families, the peace deal rings hollow because loved ones in vast numbers were killed in extrajudicial killings. Therefore, so many people seek justice from this brutal period of history in Colombia – and further back in time when so many innocents were also killed.
In time, the extrajudicial killings became known as “false positives.” Hence, an inquiry was set up to deal with this dark period of Colombian history. Thus the findings that the death toll is even higher shows just how brutal this period was for mainly poor males who were summarily executed by the armed forces.
The BBC reports, “An inquiry in Colombia has found that 6,402 civilians were killed by the military between 2002 and 2008 and falsely passed off as enemy combatants.”
Since the conflict broke out in 1964 – and before the peace deal with FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) in 2016 – the left-wing guerrillas, far-right paramilitaries, and the armed forces of Colombia all committed atrocities. Similarly, the role of America in training paramilitary groups and the armed forces of Colombia is extremely murky. Hence, an external angle exists along with the internal based on America’s geopolitical concerns. Therefore, massacres against so-called leftists were deemed permissible by the upper echelons based in Washington.
CTV News reports, “The court, called the Special Jurisdiction for Peace, is investigating crimes and atrocities committed during half a century of armed conflict between government troops and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Marxist rebels who laid down their weapons following a historic 2016 peace accord.”
It is doubtful that justice will ever be ushered in for the thousands of grieving families based on the limitations of the court and because of the deal done in 2016.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-56112386
https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/colombian-military-accused-of-6-400-extrajudicial-killings-1.5314661
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