Government: Colombia's 50,000 Disappeared Should Become 'National Cause'

Source: Reuters

August 29, 2017 8:25 PM
Reuters

BOGOTA, COLOMBIA —

Seeking the fate of nearly 50,000 Colombians who disappeared during the country's civil war should become a "national cause," a top presidential adviser said Tuesday as the government faces criticism that it is failing to do enough to find them.

Government efforts to increase searches and offer compensation to relatives of those who disappeared during five decades of armed conflict have been slow and must be stepped up, critics and families say.

About 220,000 people were killed in the war, and all the factions — state security forces, government troops, paramilitary groups and leftist rebels — are responsible for the forced disappearances, according to Colombia's National Center for Historical Memory.

"May the cause of the disappeared become a national cause," Paula Gaviria, presidential adviser on human rights, told a conference in Bogota.

Read more: https://www.voanews.com/a/government-colombia-disappeared-should-become-national-cause/4006354.html