Colombia: Dont Promote Officers Linked to Killings
November 14, 2017 7:30AM EST
Defense Ministry Conceals Key Information
(Washington, DC) – The 2017 list of candidates for army promotions in Colombia includes five officers linked by strong evidence to extrajudicial killings that are under criminal investigation, Human Rights Watch said today. Two of them are under investigation, but resumes the Defense Ministry released on October 27, 2017, had incomplete information about all five officers’ records.
Four colonels and one army general on the list of 22 have been credibly linked to “false positive” killings and other abuses under their watch. These killings of innocent civilians were committed systematically between 2002 and 2008 to boost body counts in the country’s long-running armed conflict. The Colombian Senate will decide whether to approve these promotions in the next few weeks.
“Instead of delivering a strong message that it has closed the dark chapter of false positives, the Defense Ministry is undermining the reputation of the armed forces by seeking to promote officers linked to allegations of extrajudicial killings.” said José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. “The Colombian Senate should disqualify any officers credibly implicated in serious abuses, unless and until those allegations are fully and properly investigated.”
Human Rights Watch research has shown that patterns in false-positive cases – including their systematic nature and the implausible circumstances of many of the reported combat killings – strongly suggest that commanders of units responsible for a significant number of killings knew or had reason to know about them. In addition to other forms of criminal participation, such as ordering crimes, commanders are criminally responsible under international law if they knew or had reason to know that subordinates under their effective control were committing a crime, but failed to take all necessary and reasonable steps in their power to prevent or punish those acts.
More:
https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/11/14/colombia-dont-promote-officers-linked-killings
