Colombia’s comptroller general and the UN Agency for Refugees (UNHCR) on Monday signed an agreement inviting the international watchdog to monitor the issue of displaced people due to armed conflict in the country.
Incorrect data was presented to the Unidad de Restitucion de Tierras, the entity charged with land redress, because “the Ministry of Agriculture supplied misleading information, even misleading President Juan Manuel Santos,” said Comptroller Sandra Morelli according to W radio.
The comptroller recognized that the procedures for restitution of the victims who lost their land due to the armed conflict are lengthy, but she said that the law demands it and for this reason she is handing the incorrect figures to the prosecutor general’s office for investigation.
Morelli said that technically restitution has not even begun, as “lands have been delivered but not under the Victim’s Law
The UNHCR in Colombia said on its website that “Comptroller General will be well supported in their assessment tasks in this area.”
More than 3.8 million Colombians have been forcibly displaced by the armed conflict according to the UNCHR.