A group of 29 Colombian non-governmental organizations (NGO) urge the president of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate impunity in the country and bring those responsible for crimes against humanity to justice, EFE reported Wednesday.
The South Korean ICC president, Sang-Hyun Song, was presented with a petition signed by 29 NGOs from all over the country that impressed upon him the high levels of impunity in Colombia.
“Nothing of substance about the paramilitaries in the last 25 years has been punished,” said the petition, which criticized the “incapability” and “inaction of the judicial system” that has left some 99.9% of crimes “in complete impunity.”
Moreover, the NGOs stressed that many key witnesses have been either killed or forced into exile. They warned how some eight years after the mass demobilization of paramilitaries under Uribe’s administration, “paramilitaries continue to a be a fatal reality, we have been their victims once again.”
The ICC president’s two-day visit began yesterday, where Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos signed an agreement to enforce the sentences of the ICC.
The Office of the Prosecutor, meanwhile, an independent organ of the ICC, is simultaneously conducting investigations in Colombia with the remit of assessing whether genuine national proceedings are being carried out.