Report Recounts US-Backed Atrocities in Colombian Civil War
Published on Thursday, July 25, 2013 by Common Dreams
Report Recounts US-Backed Atrocities in Colombian Civil War
New government report is a gesture towards coming clean, but human rights advocates say much more is needed
- Sarah Lazare, staff writer
Over 54 years of civil war in Colombia—fueled by decades of US financial backing of the nation's rightwing government in alliance with paramilitary groups—nearly a quarter million people were killed, 4 out of 5 of them civilians, according to a government report released Wednesday.
Commissioned in 2011 as part of government 'peace talks' with the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC), the report has garnered mixed responses from human rights advocates who are wearied by years of cosmetic government gestures towards dealing with widespread atrocities committed by its soldiers and allies.
The over 400 page report that is capturing global headlines states that violence spiked between 1980 and 2012, with a majority of massacres carried out by Colombian government-allied paramilitaries. The report details chilling atrocities—including photographs of massacred civilians—that the US and Colombian governments have long denied.
Approximately 4.7 million had been forcibly displaced since 1996, according to the report.
The document briefly acknowledges a scandal that was exposed in 2008 in which government soldiers slaughtered civilians then dressed their bodies in guerrilla clothing and claimed them as killed armed combatants.
More:
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/07/25-4
