U.S. & Colombia Cover Up Atrocities Through Mass Graves

[Judi Lynn]

Posted: April 1, 2010 09:22 AM
U.S. & Colombia Cover Up Atrocities Through Mass Graves

The biggest human rights scandal in years is developing in Colombia, though you wouldn't notice it from the total lack of media coverage here. The largest mass grave unearthed in Colombia was discovered by accident last year just outside a Colombian Army base in La Macarena, a rural municipality located in the Department of Meta just south of Bogota. The grave was discovered when children drank from a nearby stream and started to become seriously ill. These illnesses were traced to runoff from what was discovered to be a mass grave - a grave marked only with small flags showing the dates (between 2002 and 2009) on which the bodies were buried.

According to a February 10, 2010 letter issued by Alexandra Valencia Molina, Director of the regional office of Colombia's own Procuraduria General de la Nacion - a government agency tasked to investigate government corruption - approximately 2,000 bodies are buried in this grave. The Colombian Army has admitted responsibility for the grave, claiming to have killed and buried alleged guerillas there. However, the bodies in the grave have yet to be identified. Instead, against all protocol for handling the remains of anyone killed by the military, especially those of guerillas, the bodies contained in the mass grave were buried there secretly without the requisite process of having the Colombian government certify that the deceased were indeed the armed combatants the Army claims.

And, given the current "false positive" scandal which has enveloped the government of President Alvaro Uribe and his Defense Minister, Juan Manuel Santos, who is now running to succeed Uribe as President, the Colombian Army's claim about the mass grave is especially suspect. This scandal revolves around the Colombian military, most recently under the direction of Juan Manuel Santos, knowingly murdering civilians in cold blood and then dressing them up to look like armed guerillas in order to justify more aid from the United States. According to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pilay, this practice has been so "systematic and widespread" as to amount to a "crime against humanity." And sadly, when Ms. Pilay made this statement, she literally did not know the half of it.

To date, not factoring in the mass grave, it has been confirmed by Colombian government sources that 2,000 civilians have fallen victim to the "false positive" scheme since President Uribe took office in 2002. If, as suspected by Colombian human rights groups, such as the "Comision de Derechos Humanos del Bajo Ariari" and the "Colectivo Orlando Fals Borda," the mass grave in La Macarena contains 2,000 more civilian victims of this scheme, then this would bring the total of those victimized by the "false positive" scandal to at least 4,000 --much worse than originally believed.

More:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dan-kovalik/us-colombia-cover-up-atro_b_521402.html

LBN:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=4328583&mesg_id=4328583

[Judi Lynn]

1. (Earlier report) Army mass grave in La Macarena

Army mass grave in La Macarena
Miami’s El Nuevo Herald and Spain’s Público have run stories in the past two days about a shocking find in La Macarena, about 200 miles south of Bogotá.

Residents say that after it entered the strongly guerrilla-controlled zone in the mid-2000s, Colombia’s Army began dumping unidentified bodies in a mass grave near a local cemetery. The grave may contain as many as 2,000 bodies.

Público reports:

Since 2005 the Army, whose elite units are deployed in the surrounding area, has been depositing behind the local cemetery hundreds of cadavers with the order that they be buried without names. …

Jurist Jairo Ramírez, the secretary of the Permanent Committee for the Defense of Human Rights in Colombia, accompanied a delegation of British legislators to the site several weeks ago, when the magnitude of the La Macarena grave began to be discovered. “What we saw was chilling,” he told Público. “An infinity of bodies, and on the surface hundreds of white wooden plaques with the inscription NN and dates from 2005 until today.”

Ramírez adds: “The Army commander told us that they were guerrillas killed in combat, but the people in the region told us of a multitude of social leaders, campesinos and community human rights defenders who disappeared without a trace.”

More:
http://www.cipcol.org/?p=1303

[naaman fletcher]

2. Misleading headline.

Despite the headline, nothing in the story points to the U.S. "covering up atrocities through mass graves". A couple of US advisors were on a base near this mass grave. That's it.

That's like saying that 9/11 was caused by the United Nations, because, you know, the U.N. building just a few miles from where it happened.

[Meshuga]

4. You are right

The US is not covering this up per se but why is our media not covering this issue when we give aid to a group that commits attricities? Historical patterns of US aid to ruthless governments/groups in Latin America is very telling so it is very important to question the US role here. I think that the US should at the very least denounce this and have an honest debate in regards to its Colombia policy. But we won't have this debate because our corporate media is not willing to inform American citizens.

[naaman fletcher]

5. I agree, but that doesn't justify BS headlines, it actually hurts.

When people see bullshit headlines like this, they start to automatically assume that its "all" bullshit even when as you point out there are things that need to be examined.

[Meshuga]

6. I know what you mean

It takes the focus away from a much needed honest debate on a very serious issue that needs to be addressed.

[Meshuga]

3. You would think that the US government would learn from past mistakes

For instance, on how past massacres (like the one at El Mozote, for example) were covered up and reporters were demonized for uncovering the story and then the US would be embarrassed when these massacres were proven to be true (an not some exaggeration like the Reagan administration tried to paint it).

Now, the media does not even touch on the subject and the US government closes its eyes so they don't have to address these atrocities. This is very unfortunate.

As a gesture of a renewed good neighbor policy, I wish the Obama administration would denounce this but something tells me that I should not hold my breath.