The National Senate has just passed the Justice and Peace
Law; the House of Representatives has only to give its
approval and we will finally see how our country stands
before the international community, in the watchful eyes of
the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the
International Criminal Court. But most importantly, how it
stands in light of the world’s new view of crimes against
humanity. Because in Colombia these crimes are mixed up with
kidnappings for political reasons and/or extortion,
massacres, selective or indiscriminate murders, and killings
committed for strategic intimidation purposes or for alleged
control over territories.
Most alarmingly, if the law is eventually passed we would
risk sending out a message of impunity and, thus, of
weakness to Colombians and to the world, a message that will
render us “pariahs.” We are not that far from such a
shameful reality, if we consider that the text of the law
precludes the possibility of initiating investigations into
the truth based on the historical memory that relates facts,
victims and victimizers, as the Law only refers to “Justice
and Peace.” With respect to the former, it establishes
minimum prison sentences, and with respect to the latter,
only material reparation. Not to mention that narcoterrorism
is not over in Colombia, and that the multiplicity of armed
groups involved in it is still very real, and therefore it
is not clear what victims this Law would cover. Is it the
victims of the groups currently negotiating with the
government? If so, what of the victims of the groups
reluctant to take part in this process? Who is to grant them
peace, truth, justice and reparation?
Being optimistic, let us suppose that a way to compensate
all victims without distinction is found, regardless of the
armed group that perpetrated their crime. The problem of
inequality might be solved then, but who would determine the
total scope of current and future victims? This is truly
impossible because the conflict is still ongoing, because of
the way the number of victims multiplies, and because it is
unrealistic to think that the property legitimately
recovered from armed groups will be enough to materially
compensate the victims.
However, in spite of the efforts to provide material
compensation for the victims identified by the Justice and
Peace Law, the government cannot sweep under the rug the
need to find out the truth and discover the material and
intellectual authors, both political and military, that have
kept and still intend to keep Colombia wrapped in the
horrendous and dark cloak of impunity in the face of
genocide and loss of sovereignty. Because what we have here
is not the people exercising their right to
self-determination over their present and their future, but
rather the power of drug-traffickers, violent armed forces,
and political and corporate corruption that have turned the
war into their own business of power. Here lies the greatest
obstacle to establishing the truth as genuine relief for the
victims, because material compensation is but a symbol, and
more often than not it is an affront to the anguished hearts
of those who have lost their loved ones. And neither the
justice system nor the government are answering the
bereaved’s demand for truth.
Besides the material perpetrators that confess before the
judges, will those who have held governmental, political,
military and economic power assume their own responsibility
in the interest of truth?
If the establishment (politicians, the government,
businesspersons, the Church and the military) thinks that
generous material compensations lessen the need to improve
the criminal justice system, elucidate the past, or reform
democratic institutions, it is making a serious mistake. The
most ambitious reparation program to date is the one
implemented by Germany for the Holocaust victims. According
to professor Tomuschat (a researcher and specialist on the
subject), the German government expects that by the year
2030 the last beneficiaries of the various programs will
have died, and at that point it will have distributed 80
billion dollars to about 2 million beneficiaries in over 70
countries around the world. However, not only were the main
perpetrators of the Holocaust –although not all– brought to
trial before the Nuremberg Tribunal, a systematic policy
aimed at keeping the historical memory alive was also
adopted, through museums such as the one at Auschwitz and
monuments paying tribute to the martyrs, so that post Second
War World generations would not repeat such a shameful
chapter in the history of humanity.
Argentina distributed 220 thousand dollars per forced
disappearance-related victim, Punto Final and amnesty
laws were passed, but the people prevailed over their
leaders and did not stop until they were able to repeal the
impunity laws and reopen the processes leading to the
obtention of truth and real and moral punishment for those
guilty of genocide.
In Colombia we need a law of truth, justice and reparation,
in that order: first, truth, because a people that has been
subjected to violence has the right to know what happened,
what causes were behind the tragic events, and who the main
persons responsible for them are. Truth is the basis for
attaining justice, granting reparation and building peace.
The State cannot relinquish the prosecution of crimes
against humanity, because, while Congress has the power to
pass general amnesty or justice and peace laws, such as the
one approved by the Senate, it cannot, however, ignore
international human rights treaties. The State cannot make
decisions under the sophism of achieving a peaceful social
coexistence that rests on obliterating the past.
Luis Alejandro Pedraza Becerra
© Rel-UITA
23 June 2005
