A solemn day in Bogota

Monday morning I received a phone call from Catalina, a co-worker of mine from IOM. She called to let me know that we had been invited to attend a funeral-like ceremony known as an entrega de restos. During the entrega de restos, government officials returned the remains of four deceased individuals to their respective families. The four individuals had been murdered by paramilitaries and were discovered in November 2006 in a mass grave outside of Bogota. Since November, the national police and forensic investigators had worked to identify the individuals and determine their cause of death. On Monday, the families of the deceased were able to receive the remains of their lost loved ones and take steps to provide them with a dignified burial.

Before heading to yesterday's ceremony I had the opportunity to meet with the Attorney General of Colombia. I was especially impressed by his concern for the victims and their families. I was actually quite impressed by all of the officials who spoke yesterday and their commitment to the victims' families. For this reason, I have been asked by the District Attorney to work along with the Special Prosecutor for Exhumations to design a program that ensures that families receive the proper attention and support during upcoming entrega de restos ceremonies.

In addition to contributing to promoting the emotional recovery of the family members, a good argument could be made that exhumations strengthen the Colombian peace process. Such investigations expose the horrible atrocities committed by paramilitaries and guerrilla movements and I suspect that they might serve to undermine the support these groups receive from local communities. Illegal armed groups rely on various sources or "pillars" of support that include the authority or legitimacy granted to them, access to human resources and skills, supplies, and control over sources of knowledge and information. Without these important sources of material and logistical support, I suspect that armed groups would find themselves in a precarious situation and could be forced to negotiate a peace accord with the Colombian government.