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The Truth Commission, which emerged from the peace agreement with the FARC in Colombia, presented this Tuesday a crude and extensive report on the horrors committed by guerrillas, paramilitaries and state agents throughout six decades of internal conflict.
In a theater in Bogotá, the priest Francisco de Roux, who has chaired the Commission since its creation in 2017, presented the 896-page document, “There is no future if there is no truth”, the result “of social dialogue and research” on the prolonged confrontation.
Forced disappearances, acts of sexual violence, massacres and torture are some of the horrors portrayed in the report, which concludes that Colombians suffer from “collective traumas” that pass “from one generation to another for decades.”
At least 14,000 victims of leftist guerrillas, far-right paramilitaries and state agents were heard by the Commission, which was born after the peace agreement signed with the former guerrilla of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, FARC and began operating in 2018 .
“460,664 people were killed by the armed conflict,” according to what the commissioner, Marta Ruíz, pointed out yesterday at the delivery ceremony, also revealing other figures. “In homicides, 45% correspond to paramilitaries and 27% to guerrilla groups.”
Recommendations for a “great peace”
It is also the first time that a truth commission includes issues such as exile, the effect of violence on ethnic and LGBTI communities. In addition to explaining the outbreak of violence in Colombia, the Commission made some recommendations. Among them, full compliance with the peace agreement with the FARC, and the search for a “great peace.”
This means the inclusion of all armed groups, including those that emerged after the delivery of weapons by the then most powerful guerrilla in the country. “Why didn’t the country stop to demand that the guerrillas and the State stop the political war?” Francisco de Roux, president of the Truth Commission.
The president-elect, Gustavo Petro, and his vice president, Francia Márquez, were present at the delivery of the report. “The approach to the Truth cannot be considered a space for revenge, for the extension of the same weapons,” said Petro, who welcomed the Commission’s recommendations. “This government may be successful and perhaps many of these recommendations that I am now going to read may be practical, effective in the history of the Colombian people.”
Meanwhile, the current head of state, Iván Duque, a staunch critic of the negotiation with the rebels, was absent due to being on tour in Europe and sent a delegate from his government.
with AFP.
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