Colombian presidential candidate Oscar Ivan Zuluaga denounced the FARC‘s use of children to carry out acts of terror, Radio Santa Fe reported on Thursday.
Zuluaga condemned attacks made earlier this week by Colombia’s oldest and largest rebel group in which the FARC allegedly paid two children to carry bombs into a local police station in the southwestern state of Nariño.
The bombs detonated early before they reached the station and both children were killed.
MORE: 2 children dead after allegedly being paid to carry bombs to local police station
In response to the attacks, Zuluaga asked President Juan Manuel Santos “that he immediately lift negotiations with the FARC from the table.”
Commenting on the FARC’s use of child-bombers, the presidential hopeful said, “It’s a crime of the greatest atrocity from the FARC. They are demonstrating once again that they have no limits, that they are continuing to commit all kinds of barbarities while the government remains silently complicit.”
Zuluaga also demanded that the crime of using child soldiers be brought before international organizations so that an “effective condemnation” could be made against the FARC.
“I ask that President Santos to rule immediately against this atrocity,” said Zuluaga while reiterating that Santos should discontinue negotiations with the FARC.
Last year, Colombia’s Prosecutor General’s Office released a report claiming the use of children by the FARC, either through direct recruitment or manipulation for certain gain, has been an ongoing problem throughout the armed conflict.
Sources
- Zuluaga repudia que las Farc usen menores para atentados terroristas (Radio Santa Fe)