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July 26, 2013

Report: Nearly 250,000 Killed in Colombia Fighting 
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A landmark report on Colombia's more than 50-year internal conflict has
found that nearly a quarter of a million people have been killed, most
of them civilians. The report tackles the military conflict between
Colombia's armed forces and leftist guerrillas dating back to 1958, as
well as the right-wing paramilitaries that have emerged since the
mid-1980s. Gonzalo Sánchez, head of the Colombian investigative team,
unveiled the findings.

Gonzalo Sánchez: "The total of violent deaths in the country between
1958 and 2012 is at least 220,000 caused by the armed conflict. Eighty
percent of these have been unarmed civilians. It's a war that has left
most of the country mourning, but very unevenly. It's a war whose
victims are in the vast majority noncombatant civilians. It's a depraved
war that has broken all humanitarian rules beyond social and political
objectives that multiple gangs could brandish."

According to the report, Colombia's bloodiest period came between 1985
and 2002, when wealthy elites formed paramilitaries to battle rebels and
attack civilians. The main paramilitary group, the AUC, was responsible
for the bulk of nearly 2,000 massacres since 1980 as well as the worst
atrocities. The leftist guerrilla group FARC was responsible for the
most kidnappings and attacks on infrastructure. An estimated 4.7 million
people have been displaced since 1996, and around 1,200 indigenous
people have been killed over the same period. The paramilitaries have
long worked closely with successive right-wing Colombian governments,
who in turn have received billions in U.S. aid. The report was
commissioned in 2011 as part of ongoing peace talks with the rebel
group, FARC.

 

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