COLOMBIA:
Inquiry Fails to Clear
Up Mystery of Hostages’
Deaths
By Helda Martínez
BOGOTA, (IPS) -
"We didn’t need an
International Forensic
Commission to tell us
this was homicide. The
Organisation of American
States (OAS) report
about the deaths of the
legislators from Valle
del Cauca (in Colombia)
saddens and disappoints
us," lawyer Faisury
Perdomo told IPS.
"We will take the case
to however many national
and international courts
are necessary, because
we need to know the
truth," said Diego
Quintero, brother of
Alberto Quintero, who
was one of the 11
deputies killed in June.
Their bodies were handed
over to their families
last week.
The lawmakers, together
with their colleague
Sigifredo López, were
kidnapped by the
Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia (FARC)
from the provincial
legislature in the
western Valle del Cauca
in 2002.
On Jun. 28, the leftwing
guerrillas said that the
11 politicians had been
killed in the crossfire
during an armed clash on
Jun. 18. The FARC also
said that López had
survived because at that
moment he wasn’t with
the other hostages.
But the Colombian
government of rightwing
President Álvaro Uribe
said that the 11 were
murdered in cold blood.
In addition to Quintero,
the deceased were Carlos
Barragán, Carlos Charry,
Jairo Hoyos, Héctor
Arismendy, Nacianceno
Orozco, Rufino Varela,
Francisco Giraldo,
Ramiro Echeverry,
Edinson Pérez and Juan
Narváez.
In order to clarify how
the hostages were shot
to death, Bogotá asked
the Organisation of
American States (OAS) to
investigate.
The OAS International
Forensic Commission’s
report, which was
released Sept. 14,
concluded that the
hostages died from
multiple gunshot wounds,
with bullets coming from
different directions.
Therefore, "to conclude
that this was an
execution would be
speculative," said the
Commission’s
coordinator, Canadian
forensic doctor James
Young, in the report
given to OAS Secretary
General José Miguel
Insulza at a closed door
meeting in Cali, the
capital of Valle del
Cauca.
Young added that the
commission was able to
conclude that the
deputies were victims of
homicide, but could not
identify the authors of
the crime.
"The report does not
diminish our suffering
during the five years
they were kidnapped,
plus the four months
we’ve waited for their
bodies, with our sorrow
measured out in minutes
and hours, first
imagining how they must
be suffering while they
were hostages, and now
still in doubt as to how
they died," said lawyer
Perdomo, Narváez’s
sister-in-law.
"My sister Fabiola (Narváez’s
wife, and spokeswoman
for the victims’
families) says that what
you don’t know, you
can’t forgive. I agree
with her. And as we’re
not people who hate
compulsively, we will
continue to seek the
truth," she said.
The International
Forensic Commission’s
report was published, in
English only, on the web
site of the Colombian
president’s office late
on Sept. 14.
"As relatives of the
victims, we hope that a
copy of the report in
Spanish will be given to
us personally," Quintero
told IPS.
"The information we have
received is that the
gunshots followed
different trajectories
and two different kinds
of ammunition were
used," Quintero
continued. "That makes
me think, speaking
personally, that it’s
possible that the
deputies were used as
human shields."
"This is why we are
going to persevere all
the way to the end. I
have asked Faisury
Perdomo, who is well
acquainted with the
case, to represent us at
the Inter-American Court
of Human Rights, and
before the relevant
national courts," he
said.
"Six of the families are
prepared to empower her
and however many other
lawyers are necessary to
act for us," he said.
According to the
forensic report, several
bodies showed signs of
more than 10 bullet
wounds, and the shots
came from every
direction.
But Perdomo said that
"Eighty percent were
shot in one direction,
from back to front,
which suggests that they
were taken by surprise.
However, speculation
only does more harm,
which is why the report
disappointed us so
deeply."
Added to the grief of
the relatives of the
deceased deputies is the
continuing uncertainty
of relatives of hostages
still held by the
guerrillas, like Ingrid
Betancourt and Clara
Rojas.
"Yolanda Pulecio and
Clara González (the
mothers of Betancourt
and Rojas) came to the
funerals of our
relatives, as did the
wives of six other
hostages. They told us
they feared that one day
it might be we who would
be joining them in a
similar situation. Let’s
hope that never
happens," said Perdomo.
One way of avoiding such
an outcome is to reach a
humanitarian agreement
to exchange the FARC’s
remaining hostages for
imprisoned guerrillas.
Valle del Cauca Peace
Commissioner Ángela
Giraldo pressed Interior
Minister Carlos Holguín
to accept a negotiated
agreement, in a
television interview
broadcast on Friday by
the private channel RCN.
Giraldo, sister of
Francisco, another of
the murdered deputies,
told Holguín that the
crimes against humanity
committed by the FARC
might have been curbed
if negotiations to free
the hostages had been
undertaken. "But this
has not been done in the
last five years," she
said.
The Colombian government
insists that the
guerrilla movement bears
full responsibility.
"It is clear to us that
the FARC has direct
responsibility for this
crime," said government
Peace Commissioner Luis
Carlos Restrepo.
"The Forensic Commission
was able to fully
identify the bodies, as
the Attorney-General’s
Office had also done,
and has clearly found
that the manner of death
was homicide, in the
context of a violent
action. However, they
were not able to give
any details about the
circumstances of the
deaths, basically
because the commission
did not have access to
the site where the
events took place,"
Restrepo said in a
public statement.
"The government is
convinced, based on the
intelligence that it has
received since the
events occurred, that
the FARC was directly
responsible, and
obviously it is the FARC
that will have to answer
to the country for these
terrible acts," the
commissioner added.
Colombia’s ambassador to
the OAS, Camilo Ospina,
said that in his view
there was no doubt that
the FARC committed the
murders, adding that it
was a premeditated
execution, according to
a statement published on
the web site of the
president’s office.
For his part, Insulza
remarked that in the
wake of the forensic
report, securing the
freedom of the kidnapped
persons is even more
urgent, "because their
lives are at increasing
risk with every day that
passes." |
