Colombia: UN Welcomes Probe of People Falsely Declared Dead in Combat
Colombia: UN Welcomes Probe of People Falsely Declared Dead in Combat
UN human rights office, OHCHR, has welcomed progress on the investigation in Colombia of people falsely presented as having been killed in combat as “an important step in fighting impunity”.
So-called “false positives” cases refer to civilians that have been extra-judicially killed by the Colombian army and then falsely labelled as enemies in order to inflate body counts and receive promotions or other benefits.
“On Thursday, the Special Jurisdiction for Peace, which was set up to prosecute crimes committed during the armed conflict, announced that it was investigating the killing of 6,402 people, far higher than the initial figure of some 2,000 that they received to investigate”, said OHCHR Spokesperson Liz Throssell.