News that matters t. W. Made for mines. When i base it sometimes it was the l. N. Who were killing people sometimes it was fog of the paramilitaries that it and the army terrorized people with their raids. Every lechmere. The civil war in colombia has lasted for over half a century more than six Million People have been displaced was there you give it up but here we move but im here because i had to flee my village where the fark was doing terrible things to the civilian population but the level of your theory of. The conflict has claimed the lives of two hundred twenty thousand people more than thirty thousand people were kidnapped at least thirty five thousand people are still missing with the news on what is a group of men came to our door saying that they were taking my father to a meeting that was fourteen years ago. When. Making cement these fifteen meters tell about the fifty two years of civil war in colombia. But i dont know shes more used it means so much to us to learn what happened to all those people who disappeared a woman and why so many people who were forcibly displaced from their villages and had to move to the city. Has come face enough well give you how much we are. And i was like what do i mean you know maybe i work from four thirty in the morning until four in the afternoon. And im here because i had to flee my village where the part where the far chris doing terrible things to the civilian population. But i love what i hear here. In my i dont know. They killed two cousins and an uncle of mine here. So you have a massacre in one thousand people in a single night i well knew where that man would see. How you have it you got you know that we grew coffee and raised chickens. But we lost everything we had a good arm walked and we came to million and we had no home nothing and was pleasant with. Pedro and his wife maria and their family are now among the over six million internally displaced people in colombia refugees in their own country. He defused but it was really hard at first our children were told me times we had no place to live no food neighbors helped us until the red cross gave us food. Thats yar. Pay throws aunt dora muta takes us to the village of pedro marias family were forced to leave. All the houses around here were left empty after the massacre of february two thousand and three with not a Single Person was left there in the end you see Paramilitary Forces killed people up in the hills and fog retaliated by killing people down below thirty and the army terrorized the community with their raids. You know his you dont know how. Theyre only like me and. The middle flowers attached to a memorial in san carlos commemorate the many victims. Sometimes the. Twenty thousand people have been displaced from san carlos more than a thousand people were murdered and about two hundred ten people have disappeared one hundred thirty people were killed by mines and many children have been recruited into the conflict. But when we do. We buy says. My father was murdered in front of my nine siblings at six thirty in the evening when he was saying his prayers. He was beheaded in front of our workers. The father of my first child was murdered. The paramilitaries held my daughter hostage for nine months then she disappeared seven years later i found her dead body. My son jorge was murdered at the age of eighteen his body was found lying by the roadside this is my brother who was two months old when our father was killed later disappeared but all those cousins and uncles. Im surrounded by a circle of death and im terrified by the thought of more horrors of war they cant hurt my family more than they already have for me. It was a. Bad climate of violence and death has prevailed in colombia for more than fifty years. S s m i know this picture shows my father and my brother. My brother disappeared when he was twenty six years old he had one child. My father was forty eight when he disappeared. On us. Its so no concept of killed almost less complera is a secret mass grave this is the way they buried the victims and killed those who was still alive when we was healing mcdonogh dot. Com beyond there was a brick yacht there with of and with a criminal case of the bodies to destroy the evidence. The painting left him on i mean i dont know how do you think. In colombia they are not only victims. They are also people who have killed their fellow citizens. People like paramilitary commandos roderigo paris. Up with the like as i think are all mia war cannot go on any one story want to see this and no one can say how they will answer that call it a moment and i think my was a merchant in medieval you know what i have been the balibo block militia were extorting money from me and that he got gold which was but i decided to hire two people as my private security guards. Yes and they were members of a paramilitary group. That. More and more men joined their. And i was caught up in the vortex of violence that has plagued this country that your name is that i am that is that by ace. So you had seven hundred men under your command its a sixteen hundred. When twenty thousand murders have been attributed to you. See a personal yes approximately twenty thousand murders that all people express a placement recruitments all kinds of homicides people only seen. In every kind of crime you could imagine being committed in a war that weve been fighting for so many years we havent dealt with and they didnt tell us but a bunch of on. My side because there was the l r o massacre in it to angle a small town here in. What is one they murdered a lot of peoples own claiming that they were rebels into the desert they had lists of people who were to be killed. Only someone i dont know what that. Last call but the and this one a member of the saddams as an atom of even the fighters in the illegal armed groups for civilian clothes so it was easy for mistakes to happen yes the money and we saw the civilian population fall victim to attacks by armed groups. They would get a little. Me looking at. My son he was fifteen when he was recruited by the paramilitary fighters and i havent heard from him since there are many of us mothers looking for. Lost children seven or eight year old children who left their schools and went missing. This is the most painful thing thats happened to us in the entire conflict. In. Nursing that almost got against this building was initially a residential building in the one nine hundred eighty s. It was the best hotel in san carlos in the late ninetys it became a paramilitary command center. But i mean that. In effect i say it was a house of horrors or people one name to have entered the building but they disappeared and will never seen again you know or does and i mean by now you know. The long list of Human Rights Violations in colombia includes abductions carried out by far crevel forces. A high Ranking NationalPolice Officer luis men there was held captive by the fox for almost twelve years letters were the only way he could stay in touch with his family. So you know maybe it is but if he had already is about it yes you know my love you know i greet you with thousands of kisses hoping that you jose luis jenny nicole and the rest of the family are all right. I wish i could come and give this letter to you know i woke up with pain in my legs and in my bones and joints. For us all this walking has made my feet ache. Again how hard it is to march in the jungle tormented by the rain and insects he will be to us. One of us are going to have the fark has been sharply criticized for the kidnappings he carried out which have caused immense suffering to many people. Wouldnt it be fair for fark to apologize for that. This is i mean its true that the families of hostages have suffered. That is why the representatives so far have apologized and asked everyone to reconcile. You know my defusing this it is it was that i was the most difficult thing about being held hostage is that from the first day to the last we felt like we were sitting on death row. We were under constant threat during those twelve years we could be shot to death at any moment you can imagine how hard it is to live from day to day just hoping to survive one more day trying to cope with this ever present threat. He said hed gone just as i mean. During his twelve years in captivity luis mindi a to came to know the rebels who had kidnapped him. There were three times of guerrillas. First the senior founding members of the movement whose ideology was based on communism and who believed in gaining power by the use of weapons. Is a. Second there were those who had been recruited from various parts of the country when they were ten or twelve years old. And brainwashed into seeing the world through the lenses of the guerrillas i mean. I mean. Theres a lot of. And the third groups. Were the ones who ended up as rebels after the National Government began to eradicate the cocoa plantations. Compazine was consistent as its from all over the country looking for a better income. If they worked in coca fields hard in produced cocaine in laboratories. Until the colombian government with international help. Began to eradicate the plantations. By. Going you know not aerial spraying and police and military operations were carried out to eradicate the coca fields and destroyed the laboratories. He displayed a lot of stories yet he has and is working in the fields and laboratories were left unemployed. Get on scene and their best option was to try and the fark i dont know. It was the Colombian Army that finally liberated men. Is the hotel. Here. This photo was taken on the day of my liberation. I was really surprised when on the staircase. I did not want you to look. You were so young when i laughed even in the difference between these two photos is enormous interest in this area. And you know whether youd be tall or short. I was really surprised to see you with a beard. They were not there but they said they didnt they dont know my name they see the day before was june thirteenth your birthday was in on you know i was at home at the farm with my sister. Mother was in bogota. So thats something up at about eleven a. M. The phone rang and the police and the Police Director told us that shed been freed yourself and this photo. Its awful to wear the i had this photo with me the whole time. I said good morning to you every morning and good night everything. There was part of a delegation of victims who met with fark leaders in peace negotiations in cuba in his fifteen minute address mania to describe what it was like to spend twelve years as a hostage separated from his family in his former life. And he said when we thought we would go there were twelve of us victims there. And we were on one side of the table the fark leaders on the other. You know our fifteen minute addresses we explained why we regarded ourselves as victims people who had suffered a lot. We wanted them to take responsibility for our suffering and for the countless victims claimed by this conflict because. One of those on the other side of the table was far commander victorias son deno it was just is what allowed those hearing all of their stories of suffering and violence made a tremendous impression i mean i mean because mccain has no color no party and no race no ideology. Media look here you know the pain of all those who have suffered more than fifty years of violence in colombia. When they dont. Do any schools it was that we were held hostage for years in those concentration camps. Or cages really. And they havent shown the slightest sign of remorse out of it feels on the contrary. Declarations of shown that they dont regret a thing that. Apology is an individual act. But we must admit to the damage we did during those fifty some years in combat. We didnt intend to do it. Weve harmed people. Thats you on a level that you. Kidnappings and ransom demands were just one of the ways that the fark financed its operations. I thought they did finance our operations by means of detentions we dont deny this. We also had some properties that produced certain things helping us in that way. What about taxes. We collected taxes from businesses and traders who gave us a certain percentage. To finance our operations here and elsewhere. They were in there with a lot of foot in this i gotta. Know its a subject the fact that. We collect taxes from everyone who came if i took a pain in that. You could make a lot of money in the cocaine trade. That is why all the narco traffickers ill be needed its a tax for everyone you know that. Because. I love when he says you dont. Like gala. One thousand islamiya lets. In this conflict in colombia. It has been the proletariat the poor people who are fighting each other like i think you know been the most the under privileged class those who have nothing. When it comes to the National Army of colombia those who unless. And can barely read or write. And. They join the army because they need the money to provide whatever mothers families why use surprise. Here so in the same way those of us who join fuck. Your own little poor peasant who can hardly read that. Revolutionary greetings to your mother i hope you and the family are in good health. And now for the main thing mother i think we can finally meet so lets not waste time. On now here in the yard playing. At the National Conference of fucking religious police come im waiting for you. Love to everyone i mean. Has it been long since you last saw your mother. Sixteen years. Sixteen years thats a long time with them thank goodness it is. A long time since ive seen my mother. Since i joined the rebels i havent had the chance to meet my family. But i write to them. Five years ago we spoke on the telephone. But now it looks like we might finally meet. This. Matter was your mother is your mother. She respects me and supports me in what im doing it must be painful for her not to have seen her daughter for such a long time. You have spent sixteen years as a rebel in the mountains how does appeal to return to civilian life. I mean. I dont know whether it will be easy. Or hard to leave behind all those things you become used to like the military training and life in the mountains as a guerrilla fighter. So in that sense i dont think itll be easy. Because on the other hand life as a guerilla fighter is hard so i dont really worry about going back to civilian life. Im very happy about it. And i dont think itll be too difficult. Sorry pentagon is an easy word to say easy and yet very difficult. Then i thought id get right i think a little more in all warfare there are casualties and mistakes. The mistakes we made were not political or did from above. Some of our commanders crossed boundaries carrying out personal retaliations causing a lot of how. We recognize those mistakes because we are a part of the organization and we apologize for them and. It very much better dawn. On them in my. Head as the former commander of the infamous unit of the paramilitary learn the meaning of para dont during the nine years he spent in prison. A group of women victims of the conflict came to ask about their loved ones who had disappeared most of those women were mothers of the missing persons cases but this is. Our first moments together were really hard and we had feelings of shame and pain when the lot of kind of guy we were carrying on the way in terms of moral responsibility for this. And the victims were very afraid and more. Some of them were angry. And there was an atmosphere of mistrust there so when but in indiana and it was a benefit to us all. Yes they wanted information you know and we wanted to tell these women as it is it was victims. About the remorse that lies heavy a part of me and it is also what it was for someone else we wanted things to change but oh boy he really got you and we wanted to be able to admit our crimes to them as well as a skinny man is on a yes. No i not going to open with them as i want to k. Theres no bigger incentive than being able to admit your wrongdoing in person in the faces of those women reflected on pain and sorrow it is. That he stays that way its not easy to face a much pain all at once this case so they said it was a restored to process and that their pain was eased somewhat as they listened to those who had crossed their suffering. And that was because of what will be the modern. Dont believe me when i thinking i to apologize to the entire country to tell us where those missing persons well it was a crucial moment for us victims and also very important for all those boys who have been mobilized. After more than half a century of conflict colombia may finally have arrived at a moment of reconciliation apology and truth. Five hour activity last five. If they dont know that fucker apologizing as well i believe we will soon learn the truth about many things that we wanted all those rebel groups to tell us look at we gave the best amends they who make it was victims would be to tell us the truth no matter how painful it is we want to know the truth. As you look it over there how it came was how it. Was as a gate on the land just we will carry on until we find our loved ones. We have no grains for grieving over our loved ones. But we have many stories to tell to our country about why we are we paying for our beloved children for whom we feel such terrible pain. They had a wonder we got. One in him and told me that four of her sons were killed and yet her granddaughter and daughter disappeared oh yeah i understand she asked me for a lift to the cemetery so she could cry over her dead son those boys were buried my thought was where is my own daughter whom i know nothing about who disappeared nineteen years ago. This is all i was shared but all of us whose children have disappeared it enables you or theres a body. Although colombian lawmakers approve the most recent peace deal between the fark in the government its no guarantee for the end of the conflict. One sign of hope is the fox political wing the left is when your own party ought to go seems to be tired of fighting. Since it was founded in the one nine hundred eighty s. More than three thousand Party Activists and other former guerrillas who went into politics were murdered by right wing paramilitary squads drug gangs and Colombian Security forces. That are most needed but here we very thousands of our comrades the dead speak for themselves we cant go on accepting that people die on both sides every day colombias history is full of stories like that story is. Also seen carlos beside all of them nineteen was assassinated we hope well soon see an end to this. Pisano is the demobilized guerrilla groups candidate for president in one thousand nine hundred instead of the president ial palace he ended up in a grave in bogota. I was anything worried about returning to the civilian world to kill you and i found yes if the government and the far rise in particular dont at he. Had to be a code and begin to attack us instead. I think that. Were afraid that the same thing will happen to us that happened to those members of the on your own but they ought to go there we deceived and killed one after another i mean that in the cold war the things and i dont know whether knuckle under here but we are afraid but also optimistic and the more pitiful nothing. Can the victims ever forgive. The north side a place to tell you may have been liberated youll see it but youll never forget what happened was that in your dreams youre still a hostage is one of those so buddhist nights are hard for us because in our dreams we still change to a tree. When we wake up spent to hear the voices of our families. Its a joy to be free is that you have got. One of what is more important to punish or to forgive. Europeans ok custom got bored id say to punish him. But i guess you know order to set an example. In it as it is to prevent the young generation of today and from joining criminal organizations i also see as you know this getting united. And whole in west or by a nose hole in as it was taught by young people in our country are attracted by guns and at the heels theyre fascinated by people wearing olive green uniforms the only way he can win a sense. Represent authority in many regions that are neglected by the state units on this point is. This you know whether i was impressed by the people in uniforms and by their weapons it was all new to me. I mean it took away it and thats what he got political when i saw little boys playing their favorite game and playing rebels and paramilitaries with make believe wooden guns out people stadium and later those same boys were no longer playing with star who was thought they were killing people with real gods. And one of our goal is to demystify the power of weapons but theyve seen that with the last out of us. Kids mice you know but i said look you know who could be better suited to that than me they did all that they did this that i was involved in armed groups in Armed Conflict killing taking off he just wrote. Yes what would you up at that i ended up losing my family and my freedom yep is that going is that and ive been living with this moral burden reprinting the crimes i committed during all those years until i knew that its not just the former fighters you. But also the victims who are telling their stories and also i mean one of the and when the hope that young people will learn and understand the suffering that you cause yet when you harm another human being look as it pulls a one to one though no he said i knew a lot of that sort. Has forgiven those responsible for her family suffering and the disappearance of her daughter. That if you. Want. More. Yes there. Is hope that is it that want to enter to see to the example that you have set for this country shows that forgiveness and reconciliation are possible that it was because they are my do you. Know said in that milk as a by admitting the damage weve done and by accepting the fact that we had done terrible things we were not on the ok we made it possible for these women to open their hearts you know spread immediate onus by the unit thats what allowed us to tell them that what we did was wrong and that we want to be reconciled they could she had not. Been which as we know chase white boy. Is to go without a little while little on starting to be able to sleep again so much and went on but i have had many painful nights long away. Yes well if they are going to become emo. Because once you stop and think. Once you realise what terrible damage has been done that and you know and understand that this war had no justification whatsoever and once you realize that by fighting an evil war we were causing even greater harm which was why its impossible to sleep peacefully without me thank you. I love the bomb its too hard to talk about it when it was. Ok if the rebels were the only armed group that would be wonderful because this one group would be all it would take to achieve peace. But theres still the l n fight is on the paramilitary groups people still go missing and get killed its much too complicated. For myself. The possibility of reconciliation is perhaps the best captured by past or a meta. Whose capacity to forgive was put to the cruelest test. Already illegal i found a wounded man outside my house moaning in pain. I tried him in winter when he saw the pictures of my son on the wall that he was shocked and said as he left whats he doing here we killed him we are today. Legal askey estates lie said to him youre in his bed and im his mother. In a panic he started to tell me about all their atrocities and how they tortured nice on during his fifteen days in captivity raped him and poured salt into his world as. I went out to speak with my family who were furious. They wanted revenge and. I said to them see if you can guarantee that if i killed a smile that my jorge will come back alive or he doesnt all kill him but i dont think that will happen all that will happen is that for the rest of our lives we will become murderers and i think it was the end of. Losing the one you love more than anything but your own child is the only single in a dictionary theres a word for someone whos lost their spouse widow or widower children who have lost their parents or orphans. But theres no word for parents who have lost their child no word to describe that pain. Every journey begins with the first step and every language of the first word published in the. Hes in germany to germany. Versus just why not. Its simple online on your old mile and free. Stuff. T w z learning course those fake german made easy. This is a fifteen year old girl. Being gang raped. As a teacher is beating a boy for talking back and class. By the rest of the class watches. And here is toddlers being hit by his mother. Breaking up glass. A child sleeps in the streets because her family through. Here. Online bowling. Pushes a teenager over they had. Just because you can see violence against children doesnt mean it isnt there make the invisible visible of us might violence against children disappear. This is d. W. News live from berlin a court room turns into a crime scene at the United Nations tribunals for the former yugoslavia a former Bosnian Croat general is dead after drinking poison as to