Colombian govt identifies remains of nearly 10,000 disappeared

[gbscar]

Colombian govt identifies remains of nearly 10,000 disappeared
Wednesday, 25 May 2011 16:27
Marguerite Cawley

The Colombian government has identified the cadavers of nearly 10,000 people, many listed as disappeared, who were buried anonymously in various mass graves throughout the country.

Interior and Justice Minister German Vargas Lleras said that the majority of the 9,945 cadavers identified, out of 22,000 that have been recovered, correspond to people listed as disappeared in the registers of the Prosecutor General's Office.

Out of these, many specifically correspond to forced disappearances that have occurred since the year 1993(*), according to information that has been established thus far.

The corresponding lists(*) will be announced by the Ministry of Interior and Justice on Thursday, but Vargas Lleras declined to give further explanations prior to this date, Caracol Radio reported.

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http://www.colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/16525-colombian-govt-identifies-remains-of-nearly-10000-disappeared.html

Comment:

Bringing some measure of closure to the relatives of these victims is absolutely necessary and worthwhile, compared to the eternal anguish caused by ignorance and secrecy, but I do have to wonder...how many of these people were killed by the Colombian security forces and paramilitaries? Or, for that matter, by guerrillas or drug traffickers? What dark histories and responsibilities are left to be unearthed? One hopes, to a greater or lesser extent, that the recently approved victims law will allow at least a small part of the truth to come to light, in addition to helping the families of the dead demand reparations from the state regardless of who victimized them.

Another tragedy comes to mind here too, that of the "false positives" scandal where perhaps 3,000 Colombians were dressed up as guerrillas and murdered by Colombian security forces during the Uribe administration in order to earn benefits and rewards. However, a sufficiently cold-hearted but still rational mind could argue that in most of those cases the victims weren't technically disappeared but slandered and shamed instead. The families knew very well that those dead young men weren't guerrillas, which added insult to the injury, and their fate did not remain a secret for long. But, speaking simply as a human being, it's hard to tell which predicament is worse: not knowing anything at all for decades or having to actively fight to rehabilitate the memory and reputation of your loved ones. I would not dare to make a choice here.

On several levels, I believe this goes hand in hand with another bit of news Judi Lynn posted a short while ago, even though that article did not assign any responsibilities other than for those forced disappearances believed to have been caused by Colombian state agents or paramilitaries (almost 16,000 cases over the last 30 years according to NGOs) out of a total of 52,000 recorded cases. Such is indeed a very important part of the question and perhaps even where the majority of the blame for this brutal crime lies but, just as well, my concerns (which prompted me to post additional information at the time) go beyond that...and so do those, I imagine, of at least a portion of the relatives of these victims who suffered an equivalent fate at the hands of a different set of culprits. The specific reasons why any given person was disappeared may or may not matter to the living at this or that point in time but they are all the same before death.

(*)I have edited these two phrases for the sake of correcting mistakes and increasing translation accuracy. Those interested are welcome to read the original report in Spanish. See here: http://caracol.com.co/nota.aspx?id=1478441