THE PUBLIC HEARING FOR THE TRUTH (FEBRUARY 11 AND 12, 2011) DENOUNCES UNKNOWN MEN – PRESUMABLY PARAMILITARIES – WHO MASSACARED FIVE PEOPLE, AMONG THEM A CHILD, IN THE RURAL AREA OF DIOS PEÑA IN THE MUNICIPALITY OF SAN MIGUEL, PUTUMAYO DEPARTMENT

From:  Corporation Yurupari

Date:  Saturday, 12 February, 2011 5:28 pm

(Translated by Elaine Fuller, a CSN volunteer translator. Edited by Teresa Welsh, a CSN volunteer editor.)

 

The killers cut the throat of a five-year-old child. 

 

The organizations represented in the Public Hearing for the Truth which took place in the municipality of Puerto Asis, Department of Putumayo, included Department social organizations, peasant women, indigenous people and people of African descent.  It included the coordinator of the Workers of Border Towns and the National Movement of Victims of Crimes by the State, including FENSUAGRO – the Permanent Committee for the Defense of Human Rights, the Lawyers Collective "José Alvear Restrepo" and the Yurupari Corporation. 

 

FACTS

 

These groups and organizations report the following facts to the national and international communities:

 

1.     On February 11, 2011 at about 12:30 in the afternoon, unknown men violently barged into the rural area of Dios Peña, situated above the banks of the San Miguel River in the Municipality of San Miguel, Putumayo Department.

2.     There they went to the house of Señora Luz Marina Roa Alfonso, 59 years of age, and killed her along with Luz Mery Roa Roa, 35 years of age and vice president of the areas Community Action Board.  The killers also cut the throat and cut off the hands of Sorith Juliet Alfonso Roa, a child of only five years.

3.     Also killed with firearms were two of the three farm workers whom the killers encountered there.  The third worker succeeded in fleeing.

4.     The women, Luz Marina Roa Alfonso and Luz Mery Roa Roa, had their throats cut by machete.

 

 

CONTEXT

 

Near the San Miguel municipality rural areas of Afilador, Albania and Dios Peña, the location of the murders, there is an effective presence of the 27^th Jungle Brigade, the Mechanized Group José Maria Melo and the Southern Naval Force.

 

According to sources in the community, during previous days there had been military actions – combat – against the guerilla fighters of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC-EP).

 

We demand from the national government

1.     that it should investigate, with clear and effective speed, the identities of those responsible for these criminal atrocities that have terrorized the rural community of this municipality, since the presence of paramilitary groups persists even in the zone controlled by the National Army.  In spite of that, crimes against humanity are committed.

2.     that the public force with a presence in this region should comply with constitutional and legal obligations to respect the human rights of the population and international humanitarian rights.

 

We ask the international community to serve as guarantor for the investigation of these facts as it goes forward and that the presence of paramilitaries in the zone be verified since they continue to operate in this region in spite of the government's insistence that these units were demobilized.

 

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