Colombian court convicts 12 soldiers for 'false positives' killings

​​​​​​​By Laura Gamba

BOGOTA, Colombia (AA) - The Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP), Colombia's peace court, convicted 12 former soldiers on Thursday of murdering innocent civilians, a crime known as "false positives."

The JEP investigation found that former military personnel killed and forcibly disappeared 135 innocent civilians between 2002 and 2005. The victims were then falsely presented as guerrillas or members of criminal groups killed in combat. The soldiers, who belonged to the La Popa Infantry Battalion, were convicted of crimes against humanity and war crimes in the regions of Cesar, La Guajira, Atlántico and Magdalena.

Many of the victims were poor men, including farmers and those with disabilities, who were lured with the promise of a job in a faraway location before being murdered. Victims also included members of the Wiwa and Kankuamo indigenous communities. In multiple cases, the crimes were perpetrated in collaboration with local paramilitary groups.

The investigation is part of a broader acknowledgment of a government policy that led to widespread extrajudicial killings. According to Colombia’s Attorney General’s office, around 2,248 people were killed extrajudicially between 1988 and 2014, although human rights organizations estimate the number could be 5,000 or higher.

Beginning in the early 2000s, the Defense Ministry and the army implemented a policy that prioritized "body counts" above other results to defeat the FARC guerrilla movement at all costs. Military units that achieved a high number of kills were offered rewards, including money, medals and additional leave.

The president of the JEP, magistrate Alejandro Ramelli, said that "no Colombian should have died as a result of a criminal plot responsible for murdering and disappearing innocent people, with the sole purpose of turning them into figures, into numbers, into cold and corrupt statistics."

The soldiers received sentences ranging from five to eight years of restorative sanctions. Instead of prison time, the sentences consist of community service and restorative activities. They will work on construction and infrastructure projects, as well as building a memorial mausoleum with ossuaries containing the names of the victims murdered.

The ruling comes two days after the JEP sanctioned the former FARC leadership in kidnappings cases, forced disappearances, homicides, torture and sexual violence.