The United Nations on Thursday criticized the alleged appearance of paid false witnesses in the ongoing trials of Colombian soldiers for cases of extrajudicial executions.
The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights’ representative in Colombia, Christian Salazar Wolkmann, said that he has information pertaining to false witnesses appearing at the trial of soldiers accused of the so-called “false positives” in the town of Cimitarra in the department of Norte de Santander in 2008.
The term “false positives” refers to members of the armed forces accused of murdering civilians, and then dressing up the corpses as guerrillas in order to inflate their body counts.
“The UN hopes that the new government that arises from the next elections maintains the oversight of the international organization on the subject of human rights in Colombia,” Salazar said.
He also noted that the number of cases of false positives happening in Colombia has sharply decreased in recent months.