Colombia: Ex-Military Members Admit Killings of Over 100 Civilians

Former members of Colombia's military admitted to killing over 100 civilians during their active days in service.

Al Jazeera reported that the former military members publicly acknowledged their role in the 2007 to 2008 killings of at least 120 youths, that were later portrayed as members of an armed group killed during combat with the military.

The admissions were made on Tuesday during a public hearing of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) tribunal.

"I recognize and accept my responsibility as a co-perpetrator of these war crimes... We killed innocent people, peasants. I want to emphasize this: those we killed were simple peasants," former military member Nestor Gutierrez said.

Gutierrez was known to be the corporal of the 15th mobile brigade when the killings occurred.

Gutierrez claimed that they participated in the kidnapping of 120 youth from the town of Ocana and neighboring communities, that were later killed and labeled as members of the left-wing guerilla.

The former military member noted that the killings were driven by pressure from the higher-ups and the demands for the result.

France 24 noted that Gutierrez was among the ten retired members of Colombia's military who admitted their crimes to the victims' families.

The ex-military members who appeared on Tuesday were composed of a former military general, four colonels, and five other army officials. France 24 noted that it was the first time that former soldiers publicly admitted to their crimes

"After years of silence and fear, the time for truth has finally arrived, to put an end to decades of impunity," the JEP said in a video.

Meanwhile, Al Jazeera claimed that one civilian also appeared before the tribunal on Tuesday.

Colombia: The Plea of Family Members of Civilians Killed by Ex-Militaries

At least 50 family members of the civilian victims showed up at the public hearing held in the university theater in Ocana, near Colombia's northern border with Venezuela.

Eduvina Becerra, the partner of a murdered farmer, Jose Ortega, asked the former military members to clear the names of the victims of the killings.

"They were rural workers, not subversives, guerrillas and thugs as they were branded," Becerra noted.

Reports noted that sobbing family members of the civilians who were killed witnessed the former military members give details about how they murdered the victims.

Al Jazeera noted that the 120 civilian victims of the killings are just among the many cases JEP has been investigating. The tribunal determined that more than 6,400 people were killed by the military between 2002 and 2008 after they were lured out of the area of their homes.

Colombia's JEP

Colombia's JEP was established in 2016-2017 through a peace deal between the country's government and the demolished Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels.

JEP is meant to try former combatants, granting alternative punishments in exchange for full disclosure of incidents that took place during Colombia's decades-long internal armed conflict.

Since 2017, JEP has charged former FARC commanders with the kidnapping of at least 21,000 people and the recruitment of 18,000 minors, AFP reported, per Voice of America.

The tribunal has also opened a probe on guerillas, state agents, and paramilitaries that are into kidnapping, recruitment of minors, murder of civilians in 2016, as well as political violence.

On Friday a report from JEP determined that 4,600 members of the leftist party in Colombia were killed and another 1,100 went missing between 1984 and 2007.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written By: Joshua Summers

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