UN condemns Colombia's displacement 'impunity'
UN condemns Colombia's displacement 'impunity'
Friday, 27 January 2012 07:32
Miriam Wells
The United Nations has condemned Colombia for failing to prosecute cases of forced displacement.
Speaking at a specially-convened hearing on accountability, the UN's representative for displaced people in Colombia, Terry Morell, said that there was near total impunity for those who stole land or forced people from their homes.
Morell called on the Prosecutor General to take urgent action, highlighting more than 1,400 murders of displacement victims between 2007 and 2010, and claiming that 99% of displacement crimes went unpunished. Forced displacements continue at an alarming rate, with the UN's last estimate of Colombia's internally displaced people (IDP) figure as 3.67 million, the highest rate in the world.
It had been "forgotten," said Morell, that 70,000 people, or 92% of the population, had fled the village of Mapiripan and its surrounding areas following an AUC massacre in 1997.
More:
http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/21816-un-and-colombia-clash-over-displacement-impunity.html