Colombia starts probing war crimes

Colombia’s transitional justice system opened its doors yesterday to the public, in what officials hailed as a historic step towards healing more than five decades of armed conflict that killed tens of thousands of people and displaced millions.

Both victims and offenders will now be able to approach the Special Jurisdiction for Peace in a sleek office building in Colombia’s capital, Bogota, where workers are building case files documenting abuses during Latin America’s longest conflict.

Those who fully confess their crimes will not serve any jail time, and instead will make restitution to victims with acts like public apologies and repairing damaged buildings.

Those who do not co-operate could receive prison sentences of up to 20 years.

‘‘This is a historic day for the victims,’ ' said Patricia Linares, president of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace. ‘‘It’s the start of a judicial process that will heal wounds left from the armed conflict by recognising the truth.’'

So far, nearly 4700 ex-combatants with the former Revolutionary Armed Forces

COLOMBIA:

of Colombia (FARC) have committed to confessing serious crimes, as have 1800 members of the nation’s armed forces.

The conflict left a staggering toll whose full scope may never be known: more than 250,000 dead, at least 60,000 missing, and countless others the victims of forced displacement, extortion and kidnappings.

‘‘I lost my father, my brothers,’' said Daniel Valbuena, 71, who showed up at the peace tribunal’s headquarters hoping to file a death certificate for his father, whose remains were never found.

Since a peace accord was signed in 2016, Colombia has slowly begun the process of allowing FARC rebels to transition to civilian life while also providing a full accounting of the violence. The rebels have turned over their weapons and formed a political party, but many Colombians remain hesitant to turn a page, and believe the special court will be too lenient.

Jose Miguel Vivanco, the Americas director for Human Rights Watch, said the justice component of the peace accord and its implementing legislation contained ‘‘a web of ambiguities and loopholes that risk letting war criminal escape justice’'.

Offenders who fully confess their crimes will be subject to ‘‘effective restrictions of rights and freedoms’', but no specific definitions outlining exactly what that entails have been shared. Concerns have also been raised about whether commanders whose underlings committed crimes they should have known about will be held accountable even if they didn’t have actual knowledge of an offence.

‘‘The judges of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace now have the key responsibility of working within these narrow margins of interpretation in order to ensure that victims of the armed conflict receive at least a minimal degree of justice,’' Vivanco said.

Still, as former rebels enter the public sphere, the deep suspicions many still harbour towards the peace process have been evident. Rodrigo Londono, the exFARC leader, was repeatedly attacked by angry mobs throwing rocks and eggs as he campaigned for president earlier this year. Opinion polls say many Colombians want the rebels to go before the peace tribunal before participating in politics. –AP