Colombia: Top Brass Linked to Extrajudicial Executions

June 24, 2015

Colombia: Top Brass Linked to Extrajudicial Executions

Generals, Colonels Implicated in ‘False Positive’ Killings

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(Bogotá) – Extensive previously unpublished evidence implicates many Colombian army generals and colonels in widespread and systematic extrajudicial killings of civilians between 2002 and 2008, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.

The 95-page report, “On Their Watch: Evidence of Senior Army Officers’ Responsibility for False Positive Killings in Colombia,” presents evidence strongly suggesting that numerous generals and colonels knew or should have known about “false positive” killings, and may have ordered or otherwise actively furthered them. Prosecutors are investigating at least 3,000 of these cases, in which army troops under pressure to boost body counts in their war against armed guerrilla groups killed civilians and reported them as combat fatalities. Hundreds of lower-ranking soldiers have been convicted, but just a handful of colonels and no generals.

“False positive killings amount to one of the worst episodes of mass atrocity in the Western Hemisphere in recent years, and there is mounting evidence that many senior army officers bear responsibility,” said José Miguel Vivanco, executive Americas director at Human Rights Watch. “Yet the army officials in charge at the time of the killings have escaped justice and even ascended to the top of the military command, including the current heads of the army and armed forces.”

A Human Rights Watch analysis of Attorney General’s Office data shows that prosecutors have identified more than 180 battalions and other tactical units – attached to virtually all brigades and in every army division at the time – that allegedly committed extrajudicial killings between 2002 and 2008. Evidence detailed in the report shows that commanders of the brigades and tactical units responsible for a significant number of killings – as well as top army leaders – at least knew or should have known about the crimes, and therefore may be criminally liable as a matter of command responsibility.

More:
https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/06/24/colombia-top-brass-linked-extrajudicial-executions