Ex-guerrilla leaders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) on Friday (April 30) admitted their responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the kidnappings in Colombia of more than 21,000 people. They are indicted by the Special Court of Peace (JEP) for these facts.
“We expressly acknowledge responsibility for the facts and actions described” in the Jan. 28 resolution of the JEP, seven former ex-FARC leaders said. “The facts and actions in question consisted in ordering the capture and prolonged deprivation of liberty of civilians and members of the military forces”, they added in a letter delivered to this jurisdiction, created as part of the 2016 peace agreement with the former Marxist rebellion.
During a virtual press conference, they said they had transmitted to the JEP a document officially accepting the crimes with which they are accused. The court for its part indicated in a statement that it would examine it, as well as the observations of the victims, in order to assess whether there is “Full recognition of the crimes attributed and a contribution to the truth”. If this is the case, the JEP tribunal will decide on sanctions that may “Include effective restrictions on liberty” from two to five years.
“We recognize the suffering inflicted”
“We explicitly recognize the precarious and difficult conditions that the people who were kidnapped by the FARC had to face (…) the suffering unjustifiably inflicted on the victims and their families”, for his part declared the former rebel commander Julian Gallo, alias Carlos Lozada, now a senator.
Eight former leaders of what was the most powerful guerrilla in the Americas, one of whom died in January, have been charged with crimes against humanity for the kidnapping of 21,396 people between 1990 and 2016. Among them are Rodrigo Londono, the leader of the Commons party, founded by the former rebels, as well as parliamentarians Carlos Lozada and Pablo Catatumbo, who occupy two of the ten parliamentary seats granted to the ex-FARC following the peace agreement.
These are the first indictments issued by the JEP since its creation in 2017 to try crimes committed in nearly six decades of armed conflict. The FARC, which emerged from peasant uprisings in 1964, resorted to kidnappings for economic and political ends. Their leaders began to respond to the JEP from July 2018 and asked for forgiveness on several occasions.
The former actors of the armed conflict, who appear before this justice of peace, must tell the truth about their crimes and compensate the victims, in exchange for alternative sentences to prison. Otherwise, they can face up to twenty years imprisonment in traditional courts.
“Not very important towards reconciliation”
Former President and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Juan Manuel Santos, who signed the 2016 accord, praised on Twitter “The contribution to the truth, with the recognition by the FARC of their responsibility in the kidnappings”, “A very important step towards reconciliation”.
On the same social network, Carlos Ruiz Massieu, head of the UN mission responsible for overseeing the application of the agreement, welcomed“An important step forward for the rights of victims” and a demonstration of“Continuous commitment” former guerrillas towards the peace process.
Of the 13,000 FARC members who endorsed the peace process, 272 have been killed in four years, an upsurge in violence due to the expansion of armed organizations in remote areas.
Some ex-guerrillas have taken up arms again, forming a dissidence which totals some 2,500 men without a unified command, and is financed mainly by drug trafficking and clandestine mines, according to military intelligence.