Colombia's peace tribunal says former rebel leaders committed war crimes against Indigenous groups

BOGOTA, Colombia -- BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Colombia’s transitional justice system Tuesday charged 10 former members of the rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia with multiple war crimes and crimes against humanity, which it said were committed against five Indigenous groups.

In a news conference the Special Jurisdiction for Peace, or JEP, said that between 1996 and 2016 the suspects oversaw the torture, murder and forced displacement of Indigenous leaders. It said they also ordered their subordinates to place landmines in Indigenous territory and destroy ecosystems that tribes rely on for their survival.

“Today we are delivering justice to the most forgotten peoples of a segregated Colombia,” JEP magistrate Catalina Diaz said Tuesday. “These people have had their basic right to exist compromised.”

Three former members of the FARC’s last secretariat are among those charged with waging systematic attacks against tribes living in a remote area of southeast Colombia that is covered by rainforests and savannahs and where the FARC often exerted strict territorial control.

One of the suspects, Julian Gallo, served as a senator for eight years after the rebel group made a peace deal with Colombia’s government that gave its leadership 10 seats in Colombia’s congress.

Yhon Jairo Figueroa, a leader of the Koreguaje tribe attended Tuesday’s press conference and said he was thankful to the JEP for taking on the case.

“For the first time the Colombian state recognizes that (armed groups) did not just kill individuals,” he said. “But they attempted to kill the knowledge, the language, the territory” of Indigenous groups.

The special tribunal was established during the 2016 peace deal between the Colombian government and the FARC rebels with the aim of investigating crimes committed by both sides during decades of internal strife, and helping victims seek reparation and truth.

An independent truth commission that was also part of the 2016 peace agreement, found that at least 450,000 people were killed in the conflict, and 7 million were forced to leave their homes.

The former FARC leaders have 30 days to respond to the charges filed by the JEP.

The tribunal’s statutes indicate that if suspects accept charges and collaborate with investigations, they will not face time in prison. Instead they will have to provide reparations to victims and participate in truth and reconciliation schemes.

Suspects who do not accept charges and are found guilty of committing war crimes face up to 20 years in prison.