Colombia’s war crimes tribunal JEP announced an investigation into crimes against humanity committed against ethnic minorities.
The investigation would seek justice for war crimes that left more than 1.35 million victims who belong to ethnic minorities, JEP president Eduardo Cifuentes said Tuesday.
The crimes that will be investigated were committed by state officials, the now-defunct guerrilla group FARC and civilians.
The investigation is the ninth since the JEP took force in 2018.
JEP investigations
- FARC kidnappings
- Crimes committed in Nariño
- Extrajudicial executions by the security forces
- Crimes committed in Uraba
- Crimes committed in northern Cauca and the south of Valle del Cauca
- Extermination of the Patriotic Union party
- Child recruitment
- State crimes with support from the private sector
- Crimes against ethnic minorities
In a press statement, the JEP said that the ethnic minority case will follow three lines of investigation.
The first investigation will look into crimes that were committed by the FARC as a consequence of the guerrillas’ strategy to fight its insurgency from regions where indigenous peoples and Afro Colombian communities enjoy autonomy.
The second investigation will look into crimes that were committed because of the “counterinsurgent discrimination” of ethnic minorities by the security forces and their associates in the private sector.
The last investigation will focus on crimes committed by both the FARC and the security forces as they tried to assume territorial control as part of the armed conflict.
Ethnic minorities have disproportionately been affected by the armed conflict in their country because of a combination of factors that include the location of their territories and racism.
Multiple indigenous peoples have faced extinction because of violence associated with the armed conflict, the Constitutional Court found years ago.
The JEP’s criminal investigation is the result of a peace deal between former President Juan Manuel Santos and the FARC, which found that ethnic minorities “have suffered histories of injustice as a result of colonization, slavery, exclusion and the dispossession of their lands, territories and resources.”
Crimes committed by paramilitary groups are being investigated by another transitional justice system, Justice and Peace, which took force after the partial demobilization of paramilitary organization AUC between 2003 and 2006.
The government of President Gustavo Petro is trying to resume peace talks with guerrilla group ELN that include criminal investigations into war crimes committed by that guerrilla group.
