Colombia’s transitional justice system on Thursday opened its doors to the public in what officials hailed as a historic step toward healing more than five decades of armed conflict that killed tens of thousands and displaced millions.
Both victims and offenders are now able to approach the Special Jurisdiction for Peace in a sleek office building in Colombia’s capital, where workers are building case files documenting abuses during Latin America’s longest conflict.
Those who fully confess their crimes would not serve any jail time, instead they are to make restitution to victims with acts such as public apologies and repairing damaged buildings.
Those who do not cooperate could be handed prison sentences of up to 20 years.
“This is a historic day for the victims,” Special Jurisdiction for Peace President Patricia Linares said. “It’s the start of a judicial process that will heal wounds left from the armed conflict by recognizing the truth.”
So far, nearly 4,700 former combatants with the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) have committed to confessing serious crimes, as have 1,800 members of the nation’s armed forces who fought in the bloody conflict involving leftist rebels, the state and paramilitary groups.
The conflict left a staggering toll whose full scope might never be known: More than 250,000 dead, at least 60,000 missing, and countless others the victims of forced displacement, extortion and kidnappings.
“I lost my father, my brothers,” said Daniel Valbuena, 71, who showed up at the peace tribunal’s headquarters hoping to file a death certificate for his father, whose remains were never found. “My life has been tragic.”
Since a peace accord was signed in 2016, Colombia has slowly begun the process of allowing FARC rebels transition to civilian life, while also providing a full accounting of the violence.
The rebels have turned over their weapons and begun a political party, but many Colombians remain hesitant to turn a page and believe the special court will be too lenient.
Human Rights Watch Americas director Jose Miguel Vivanco said the justice component of the peace accord and its implementing legislation contain “a web of ambiguities and loopholes that risk letting war criminals escape justice.”
Offenders who fully confess their crimes would be subject to “effective restrictions of rights and freedoms,” but no specific definitions outlining exactly what that entails have been shared.
Concerns have also been raised about whether commanders whose underlings committed crimes they should have known about would be held accountable even if they did not have actual knowledge of an offense.
“The judges of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace now have the key responsibility of working within these narrow margins of interpretation in order to ensure that victims of the armed conflict receive at least a minimal degree of justice,” Vivanco said.
Valbuena arrived carrying a journal filled with notes.
His father’s remains were never found, but the family has long believed him to be dead.
Two brothers went missing and a third drowned in a river as the family was fleeing the violence.
All those crimes occurred even before the date most historians count as the official start of the nation’s armed conflict, making it unlikely that the family will ever find out exactly what happened to their loved ones, Valbuena said.
He said his own son later joined the guerrillas, remains jailed and has cancer.
Still, he said, the special jurisdiction’s existence has given him some peace.
“Look what [Colombian] President [Juan Manuel] Santos has achieved with just one signature,” Valbuena said. “God bless justice.”
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