Reconciling Atrocities

A couple of nights ago I was making dinner, cutting up a squash we grew in our little garden, and chatting with one of my young friends in the community. Her father was killed in the massacre of July 8th 2000 that happened directly in the center of La Unión. I have mentioned this massacre before in this blog, I have talked about it at length with friends and neighbors here in the village, I have not yet come to terms with the horror that people must have felt as they were assembled and then asked to give up their leaders. I cannot imagine what it felt like to remain silent and then watch as masked paramilitary gunmen picked out three of their leaders and three of their fellow community members in spite of the courageous silence. It seems unbearable to reconstruct the moments soon after when the paramilitaries, keeping the six men at gunpoint, ordered everyone else to flee, as a Colombian military helicopter circled directly overhead – demonstrating absolute complicity with the illegal armed group. And then the shots firing just as people had barely reached the path outside of the gate that encircles La Unión. I have no emotional reference to even begin to access what my young friend felt as she heard the shots that killed her father.

At nine years old I was worried about playing soccer and having sleepovers and what was happening down in Fraggle Rock. I was not dealing with the violent and terrorizing death of my father as it unfolded in the remote mountain village of my birth. Here in La Unión, thoughts of the massacre are never far away as the protracted violence that continues in the land the community calls home and indeed, all over Colombia prevents time from softening the horror of this act. And, as if that weren’t enough, the current public hearings of paramilitary ringleaders and demobilized combatants re-awaken the atrocities with an unbelievably cruel and tragically unjust take on justice. In order to qualify for the legal benefits that are part of the demobilization package codified in the offensively named Justice and Peace Law (Ley de Justicia y Paz), demobilized paramilitary leaders and combatants must make a full confession of their crimes. The legal benefits include a maximum sentence of 8 years for crimes committed and guarantees against extradition. Colombian paramilitaries are responsible for some of the most atrocious human rights crimes thinkable and if a “full confession” of these atrocities is made, the maximum time served would be eight years – plus if they have already been in jail, time served is taken out of the sentence. This keyboard does not have the exclamatory range to express how outrageous and preposterous this is. I understand that after more than fifty years of internal conflict a government should consider all options for ending the violence and soft judicial proceedings for crimes against humanity might seem like a way to end paramilitarism. But as these hearings unfold I have become even more convinced of the cruel and obvious disregard for justice or peace in the so-named law.

This past week have seen the, versiones libres or public confessions of Jorge 40 and Don Berna, the common known alias of two of the most notorious of the paramilitary war lords as well as a demobilized paramilitary from the Bloque Banero that operated in San José, José Adriano Cano, known as his alias, “Melazo”. As part of his lengthy confession, Don Berna – who is still known to be controlling paramility activities in Medellín from prison - admitted to ordering the above-mentioned massacre in 2000 in La Unión. Adding to this, “Melazo” admitted to committing the same massacre of 6 leaders in La Unión, of which my young friend’s father and uncle were included. He said that he and ten other paras, all with faces covered in ski masks, had patrolled the area with members of the public forces, proving collusion between the paramilitary and state forces and finally giving official credence to the version of the massacre that the community has always insisted upon as the truthful version. A couple of months ago, this same man admitted to having been present with the Colombian army as they committed the massacre of February 2005 which killed community leader Luis Eduardo Guerra, 3 children and four other adults.

As I continued to prepare the squash I carefully brought up the fact that two of the paramilitary’s responsible for her dad’s death were admitting to it as part of the confessions necessary to take advantage of the Justice and Peace Law. Her delicate face hardened into anger and pain as she said the only reconciliation would be the death of the men who killed her father, uncle and the 4 other leaders and community members. I found myself unable to argue with her – while at the same time thinking of how I should be speaking up for one of the moral stances I find non-negotiable; my opposition to capital punishment – thinking of how I should at least try to gently suggest a ‘turn the other cheek’ alternative to meeting violence with violence. But I found myself absolutely incapable to challenge her resolute response and felt instantly shaken and unsure about what I thought these monstrous men deserve. I just don’t know. I do know that the audacity to suggest that these are truth and reconciliation trials strikes me as callous and cruelly disingenuous. I do know that I will never be able to understand what it is she must feel – what the friends and families of the countless victims must feel. I do know that persuading these war lords to admit to “all of their crimes” and then punishing them with what amounts to a light slap on the wrist is not the answer to this convoluted and overwhelming war. I do know that I could live and work in this country another 25 years and still not really understand the complexity and many layers of corruption and violence that envelop Colombia.

Victims and families of victims have been showing up at the hearing sites in large numbers – thousands of people registered to be present for Don Berna’s public confession – a right granted to them by the government. However, there have also been “supporters” of the paramilitary war lords present with signs proclaiming grateful support for these monsters who are personally responsible for the deaths and disappearances of thousands of innocent civilians. In many cases it seems that the big shot about to confess has made monies available to pay campesinos from the areas he once controlled to rally at his confession sight and appear supportive and even taken aback that such a caring and upstanding citizen could be under arrest for such atrocious crimes. The pictures and stories I’ve seen on these gatherings are just sickening. I am glad to juxtapose them with the sights and words of the victims who courageously appear in hopes of getting some answers to why and when and how their loved ones were taken or killed. The photos show faces similar to that of my young friend – faces twisted in anguish and despair but hardened by anger and the awareness of being on the true side of justice and peace.