Colombia confronts its bloody past

Page last updated at 10:49 GMT, Saturday, 2 August 2008 11:49 UK
Colombia confronts its bloody past

By Jeremy McDermott
BBC News, El Charcon

Colombia's mass graves are starting to reveal the true horror of more than a decade of paramilitary massacres and murders. But few believe the full truth will ever be known or that the government wants it all revealed.

The front line in the search for truth under the country's controversial peace and justice law, which set out the conditions for paramilitaries to disband, is the exhumation of mass graves across the country.

These are being carried out by the attorney general's office and its investigative wing, the Technical Investigative Body (CTI), which is examining the thousands of killings committed by the paramilitary United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC).

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There are dozens of bodies believed to be buried in the hills around this town of 1,000 people.
Unlike other places in Colombia, the paramilitaries did not need to bury or hide their victims as there was a total lack of government presence.
They simply killed people in the streets and waited for the families to pick up the bodies.

More:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7533418.stm