WOLA warns of more pending promotion of shady Colombia military commanders
WOLA warns of more pending promotion of shady Colombia military commanders
Posted by Adriaan Alsema on Jan 15, 2016
The Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), a US think tank, sent a letter to Colombias Defense Ministry on Wednesday protesting the pending promotion of military officials accused of war crimes.
In the letter, WOLA stressed that the seven military commanders awaiting promotion are either under investigation, awaiting trial, or facing allegations that they oversaw appalling human rights violations.
The officials promotion would send a perplexing message at a sensitive time for the country that is currently in a process to make peace between the state and leftist rebel groups FARC and ELN.
Colombia is finally nearing an end to its decades-long armed conflict, and is holding more and more human rights abusers accountable, but promoting these officials without first letting the criminal justice system do its work would represent a setback,said WOLAs Adam Isacson in the letter to Defense Minister Luis Carlos Villegas.
We had all hoped that Colombias armed forces were putting this sort of thing behind them. Thats why these nominations are so perplexing, Isacson added.
More:
http://colombiareports.com/160884-2/