Colombia’s defense minister on Sunday said that rebel group FARC used civilians as human shields during recent combat in northwestern Colombia.
According to Defense Minister Juan Carlos Pinzon, rebels from the FARC’s 57th Front in the Choco department took shelter from army operations by hiding in the houses of “indigenous and peasants,” thereby putting civilian lives at risk.
“[T]hese terrorists use the houses of the civilian population, where there are children and they use them as human shields, putting the lives of these people in danger,” he said.
Pinzon said this and other cases of alleged human rights abuses would be taken to the United Nations and the International Commission of the Red Cross.
During the combat in Choco’s Riosucio municipality on Saturday, the army killed four FARC rebels and arrested two more.
MORE: Army kills 4 ‘FARC rebels’ in northwest Colombia