JEP convenes public hearing on versions of military personnel linked to false positives in Huila

The victims in Neiva accredited to the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) in case 03 “Unlawfully presented as casualties in combat by agents of the State”, will be able to present their observations and demands on the 150 versions delivered by 47 soldiers and 33 non-commissioned officers and officers, eight lieutenant colonels, five colonels and six generals of the Republic, attached to the Ninth Brigade of the National Army, on cases of possible false positives presented in this department in the context of the armed conflict in Colombia.

“The observations may refer to the versions submitted by the commanders of the IX Brigade, the members of their respective General Staff, as well as those submitted by the former commanders of Infantry Battalion No. 26 'Cacique Pigoanza', the Infantry Battalion No. 27 'Magdalena', the Artillery Battalion No. 9 'Tenerife', the Contraguerrilla Battalion No. 09 'Los Panches' and the Gaula Huila,” reported the entity born of the Peace Agreement, between the Colombian State and the former FARC guerrillas.

The peace court has in its records, 160 false positive crimes, in the department of Huila, between 2005 and 2008. “This finding was made during the process of assessing the evidentiary acquis, which, among other things, includes four reports provided by the victims and the Office of the Attorney General of the Nation, as well as the judicial verification of the JEP with processes of the ordinary justice and military criminal justice,” states the document of the justice of the peace.

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The main objective of these public hearings will be oriented to the participation of victims towards the early restoration of their rights. As stated by the JEP Appeals Section, “the memory of the victims is essential to accurately determine the time, place, perpetrators and circumstances in which the violations were perpetrated, to clarify the motivations of the perpetrators, the context or plan in which the attacks were inserted, which are key elements for the research verification process”.

For its part, the South Colombian Observatory for Human Rights (Obsurdh), in its report “Voices and Silences, false positives in Huila, breaking impunity”, has systematized a total of 129 cases of false positives, in which 253 people were killed between 1984 and 2012, in 26 of the 37 municipalities of the department .

Andrea Jiménez, coordinator of the Obsurdh, told local media that this is the first time that there has been a clear space for victims of extrajudicial executions, for an exercise in the verification of information. “At the hearing scheduled in Neiva, the victims will tell the judiciary what their perception has been about the level of contribution to the truth by the speakers, on which versions they should focus more and what remains to be said by the military who have taken advantage of the Jurisdiction,” he explained.

The report of the human rights observatory reveals that the municipalities where these false positives occurred the most are: Acevedo, Altamira, Elias, Isnos, Oporapa, Palestine, Pitalito, Saladoblanco, San Agustín, Suaza, Tarqui and Timana.

Regarding cases of false positives in Huila, Generals Marcos Evangelista Pinto Lizarazo and Edgar Alberto Rodríguez Sánchez have appeared. The Truth Recognition Room inspected more than 450 files belonging to the battalions 'Cacique Pigoanza', 'Magdalena' and the IX Brigade. These official documents include books of operational programs, tactical missions, agendas, operational radiographs and the folders of military operations where combat casualties were reported.

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