Colombia's top military brass implicated in civilian killings

Colombia's top military brass implicated in civilian killings

JIM WYSS

Last updated 05:00, June 26 2015

Miami

In August 2008, Carmenza Gomez's 23-year-old son left his home in Bogota, Colombia, with two friends after they were promised jobs on the coast. Two days later all three were dead. The Colombian army said Victor Fernando Gomez and his companions were guerrilla soldiers who had been gunned down in combat.

Seven years later, Gomez's case is one of thousands of so-called "false positives" - civilians murdered by the military and passed off as enemy combatants in order to inflate the body count.

While the government is investigating at least 3000 cases, and has handed down more than 800 convictions, the military's top brass has, thus far, evaded responsibility. According to a Human Rights Watch report released on Wednesday, the evidence implicates "many Colombian generals and colonels" in the extrajudicial killings.

"False positive killings amount to one of the worst episodes of mass atrocity in the Western Hemisphere in recent years, and there is mounting evidence that many senior army officers bear responsibility," said Jose Miguel Vivanco, Americas director of Human Rights Watch. "Yet the army officials in charge at the time of the killings have escaped justice and even ascended to the top of the military command, including the current heads of the army and armed forces."

More:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/69721271/colombias-top-military-brass-implicated-in-civilian-killings