Red Cross finds three bodies that would correspond to victims of the armed conflict in Antioquia

A mission from the International Red Cross (ICRC) arrived on Wednesday afternoon, 13 April, in the rural area of the municipality of Dabeiba (Antioquia). The team made up of forensics, psychologists, search leaders and rescuers, managed to find the skeletal remains of three men, who apparently disappeared 16 years ago in Antioquia's Urabá.

The humanitarian organization noted that the finding occurred in rural areas between Dabeiba and Mutata, at a point pointed out by the families of the men, who asked the International Committee for help and commented that they had not been able to return to the site because of the conditions of the armed conflict.

Through its Twitter account, the ICRC broke the news of this process: “After 7 hours between carts and horses, we managed to reach the point in rural Dabeiba where a father and son and another man had been buried since 2006, when due to the armed conflict their families had to leave them there without the possibility of recovering their remains”.

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After the work on the intervened point, the international commission said: “Now, the remains of these men are in Legal Medicine for identification. Meanwhile, their families receive psychosocial support. The families of missing persons deserve to know where they are and what happened to their loved ones,” says the ICRC's second triune in Colombia.

This municipality in Antioquia's Urabá was one of the most affected during the armed conflict in Colombia. According to figures from the Single Registry of Victims, 324 cases of enforced disappearance have been documented in this area of the country. However, organizations in the region have reported that the whereabouts of more than 1,000 people are unknown to date.

The National Movement of Victims of State Crimes (Movice) claims that several of these victims were killed and buried as NN, in one of the six cemeteries that are located in the municipality.

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Similarly, the Movice noted the complicity of the security forces in acts of enforced disappearance in the region. This is also recognized by victims such as those grouped in the humanitarian zone of La Balsita, who since 2005 publicly denounced the forced disappearances committed by paramilitaries, with the support of battalions attached to the 4th and 17th brigades of the National Army.

It should be noted that since August 15, 2019, Movice requested the JEP to extend the request for precautionary measures, to include the protection of bodies of persons reported missing, over the six cemeteries located in the municipality of Dabeiba.

According to the 2021 Red Cross report, the scourge of disappearance is still present in the country, since in the last year 168 cases were reported of people whose traces or contacts were lost, of which 79% were concentrated in the departments of Norte de Santander, Nariño, Cauca, Arauca, Valle del Cauca and Antioch.

The international organization also stressed in its annual report that the challenges to the search for missing persons are multiple and complex. “Therefore, it is essential that there be political will to prioritize attention to the problem and respond to the needs of family members. Indifference cannot continue to be the response of a society to a phenomenon that has left thousands of victims and that continues to be present in the country.”

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