ICRC recovers the remains of people killed in the conflict
24-04-2013 Feature
On 12 July 2012 an ICRC team recovered the remains of two crew members from an Air Force plane that crashed in a rural area of Jambaló, in Cauca department. The ICRC delivered their remains to the Third Division of the National Army in Popayán.
The remains of one crew member had been in the hands of the FARC-EP, who had contacted the ICRC to arrange to hand them over. The local fire department had taken the second pilot’s remains from the crash site to the nearest major town, where the ICRC team collected them.
The humanitarian operation to collect the crew members’ remains began before dawn and was completed around five o’clock in the afternoon. Fighting in the area forced the three ICRC delegates to find alternative routes on several occasions to reach their destination.
Colombia 2012:
Disappearance
This was just one of several such operations carried out in 2012 by ICRC staff across Colombia. Including the two crew members in Jambaló, the ICRC recovered the remains of 13 people killed in connection with the armed conflict. Ten of those operations were carried out in Cauca, Nariño and Chocó, which fall within the territory covered by the ICRC sub-delegation in Cali.
Most of those whose remains were recovered were civilians who had been murdered and buried in unmarked graves or in cemeteries in districts off-limits to the authorities. One was a minor who was a member of an armed group and was killed while handling an explosive device. He had been buried in an unmarked grave in the local cemetery.
