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In Colombia, the court that emerged from the peace agreement that disarmed the FARC in 2017 charged this March 8 for the first time 10 former members of that guerrilla for recruiting minors during their war against the State.
“The FARC-EP used recruitment as a political-military strategy for which they promoted, carried out the recruitment and use of girls and boys,” the magistrate of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) Raúl Sánchez told the media.
According to the court that punishes the worst crimes committed by the different actors in the Colombian conflict, this is the first accusation of this type against former guerrilla combatants.
Judge Sánchez did not specify how many minors were forced to take the rifles by decision of the defendants, although he pointed out that the majority of the cases occurred at the end of the 1990s and from 2011 until the year of disarmament.
Among the most atrocious crimes, registered in the department of Cauca (southwest), the judge detailed the case of an indigenous minor from the Nasa people who was recruited at the age of 14 and later executed on suspicion of being an informant.
In addition to this crime, the JEP indicted the ten ex-guerrillas for other crimes against humanity such as the use of antipersonnel mines and disappearances that affected aboriginal and peasant communities.
“They are also charged with the war crimes of homicide (…) executions without prior trial, displacement and destruction of the environment,” the court said in a bulletin.
The JEP has been investigating the rebels who signed the peace since August 2021 for at least 18,667 cases of child recruitment during five decades of armed uprising.
In January 2021, he charged senior FARC commanders with the kidnapping of 21,396 people between 1990 and 2016. The former guerrillas accepted their responsibility and await a sanction.
Dozens of ex-soldiers, including a general, must also answer for the murder of 6,400 civilians who were executed by the Army and presented as combat casualties in exchange for benefits, in the scandal known as “false positives.”
The JEP offers alternative sentences to prison to those who accept their responsibility and repair the victims.
It is expected to issue its first rulings later this year.
