446 unclaimed bodies probed

[Judi Lynn]

Sep 8, 2010
446 unclaimed bodies probed

BOGOTA - THE UN High Commissioner for Human Rights called on Tuesday on Colombia to 'move quickly' to identify 446 bodies unearthed in a cemetery in central La Macarena town, saying some could be victims of summary executions by the military.

The OHCHR said in a report it 'found no evidence' of a common grave in the township, in Meta department, but that acting on tips from non-governmental groups it discovered there were 446 'unidentified, individually exhumed' bodies in the town cemetery.

It said the deceased 'were reported as combat deaths by law enforcement, from 2002' onwards.

The OHCHR said it found 'omissions in the care and handling' of the bodies that were in violation of international human rights regulations.

It also 'took note of information... about possible cases of extrajudicial executions (by the military) whose victims would be buried in La Macarena cemetery.' Human rights groups have denounced over a thousand of so-called 'false positives' - extrajudiciary killings of civilians committed by Colombian soldiers who masked the victims as guerrillas in order to get rewards promised by the government.

http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/World/Story/STIStory_576111.html