GENEVA (Reuters) – Colombian military and police forces suspected of committing crimes including murder and torture in the country’s long war could escape prosecution under proposed constitutional reforms, UN human rights experts warned yesterday.
In a rare joint letter to Colombia’s government and congress, made public in Geneva, they called for urgent reconsideration of the draft reforms in the interest of fighting impunity and fostering peace.
The government of President Juan Manuel Santos and Marxist guerrilla leaders agreed last week to start peace talks next month aimed at finding a negotiated end to the five-decade-old conflict.
In their letter, the human rights experts called for a reconsideration of the proposed reforms, which would expand the power of military criminal tribunals to investigate violations committed by all sides. They said such cases should remain in the hands of civilian courts.
“Should this reform be approved, it could seriously undermine the administration of justice in cases of alleged violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, including serious crimes, by military or police forces (Fuerza Publica),” the experts said.
“We believe that such a reform would represent a historic setback to the progress achieved by the state of Colombia in the fight against impunity and respect and guarantee of human rights,” they said.
Eleven independent UN experts who report to the UN Human Rights Council, including its investigators into extrajudicial executions, torture and arbitrary detention, signed the letter.
Thousands of people have been killed and millions more displaced in 50 years of war between the Colombian government and leftist guerrillas, whose grievances include the unequal distribution of land.
Negotiators from the government and Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) have agreed to meet in Cuba in mid-November to start what are likely to be thorny peace talks aimed at patching together an end to the conflict, both sides said in Norway on Thursday after initial talks.
