During the International Week of the Detained and Disappeared, human
rights organizations and hundreds of families of victims asked
Colombia’s government to ratify the International Convention against
Forced Disappearances.
The National Search Commission keeps track of the disappeared and reports that from January 2007 until May 2009, an estimated 26,622 people went missing in Colombia. Bogota reported 7,381 cases for the same period , the city with the highest number of disappearances in the country, El Espectador reported Friday.
Official figures say that of the 7,381 cases, 1,358 people reappeared unharmed and 174 are dead. That leaves 5,849 people who disappeared without a trace in Bogota alone.
Ombudsman Volmar Perez thinks that the high number of reported cases in Bogota could be due to the fact that many displaced people take refuge in Colombia’s capital.
Andres Peña, coordinator of the National Search Commission explained that “the figures include forced disappearance by armed groups but also the husbands who went to buy cigarettes and never returned”.