You are viewing an obsolete version of the DU website which is no longer supported by the Administrators. Visit The New DU.
Democratic Underground Latest Greatest Lobby Journals Search Options Help Login
Google

Reply #1: Of all those who have disappeared over 30 years, the state is thought responsible for about 16,000 [View All]

Printer-friendly format Printer-friendly format
Printer-friendly format Email this thread to a friend
Printer-friendly format Bookmark this thread
Home » Discuss » Places » Latin America Donate to DU
gbscar Donating Member (283 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Aug-30-11 07:30 PM
Response to Original message
1. Of all those who have disappeared over 30 years, the state is thought responsible for about 16,000
Edited on Tue Aug-30-11 07:46 PM by gbscar
State and paramilitaries responsible for 16,000 forced disappearances: UN

Monday, 23 May 2011 17:02
Tom Heyden

The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights has said that the Colombian state and paramilitaries are culpable for 16,000 forced disappearances in the country over the last three decades, Spanish news agency EFE reported Monday.

Christian Salazar, at a forced disappearance seminar in the Colombian capital of Bogota, stated that the current total figure stands at over 57,000 recorded disappearance cases, with 15,600 of these being forced disappearances.

He clarified that these figures are taken from NGOs and that the Prosecutor General's Office has seen "probably more than 26,500 cases of alleged forced disappearances."

These incidents of forced disappearance were mainly "committed by state agents and paramilitary forces who collaborated with them," while "there are more than 3,000 women and 3,000 people under 20 years old" included in the estimates.

<...>

http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/16462-state-and-paramilitaries-most-responsible-for-forced-disappearances-un.html

Comment:

Needless to say, as the rest of the article and even the newest piece have indicated, both the total number of Colombians who have disappeared and those cases that can be directly or indirectly tracked back to the state, as opposed to those disappearances for unrelated causes or which have been directed by other parties in this conflict, are nothing but partial estimates.

Even if nobody ever disappeared again in Colombia from now on, the estimates will inevitably continue to grow just because more research is being done, more relatives of the victims are talking and the truth indicating the sheer magnitude of this brutality is slowly coming to light. That is, in fact, what explains most of the jump between this May article and the current August estimates. Unfortunately, people are still disappearing in Colombia, both forcefully or otherwise, to this day.

It's horrible to even think about these figures, but there is indeed a real possibility that there might well be 100,000 or more disappeared over all these decades of war and repression, with a significant -perhaps even the vast majority, though that doesn't make the remaining cases any less terrible or the other culprits any less guilty- chunk of that carnage being the sole responsibility of the Colombian right-wing.
Printer Friendly | Permalink | Reply | Top
 

Home » Discuss » Places » Latin America Donate to DU

Powered by DCForum+ Version 1.1 Copyright 1997-2002 DCScripts.com
Software has been extensively modified by the DU administrators


Important Notices: By participating on this discussion board, visitors agree to abide by the rules outlined on our Rules page. Messages posted on the Democratic Underground Discussion Forums are the opinions of the individuals who post them, and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Democratic Underground, LLC.

Home  |  Discussion Forums  |  Journals |  Store  |  Donate

About DU  |  Contact Us  |  Privacy Policy

Got a message for Democratic Underground? Click here to send us a message.

© 2001 - 2011 Democratic Underground, LLC