Colombia: President deems UN human rights report imprecise

Colombian President Ivan Duque on Thursday considered a biased and imprecise report by the United Nations on the human rights situation in his country, which reports killings and abuses by soldiers and police.

"We must always analyze these documents with great serenity and that is what we have done, but I must express my concerns," the head of state said to journalists. "What worries me is that (the report) includes inaccuracies (...) is that it does not tell the truth about the progress" of the country in the defense of human rights, a- he added. "There can be no bias and we will be where we need to be, at the (UN) Human Rights Council, to make the voice of the Colombian government heard , " said Duque.

Read also: Colombia: where is the peace process with the FARC?

The Department of Foreign Affairs said earlier in a press release that it would comment on the report, saying it was neither "complete" nor "up to date" , and that it contained "considerations which border on political opinions, as well as evaluations and conclusions which go beyond its field of action ” . UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet on Wednesday alerted to killings and other alleged abuses by soldiers and police in Colombia since the 2016 peace deal with the former guerrilla FARC.

During the presentation of the annual report on the human rights situation in the country, the representative of Ms. Bachelet in Colombia, Alberto Brunori, reported "15 alleged cases of arbitrary deprivation of the right to life in 2019" at the hands of law enforcement. "This is the highest figure recorded by this service since 2016," he said. He said that in 13 cases of death involving state agents, "there was " unnecessary and / or disproportionate use of force ".

Read also: Colombia: 7 dead and 11 injured in the explosion of a van

The report also reports sexual abuse, corruption, complicity with illegal groups and attacks on journalists by law enforcement officials.

In late November 2016, the government of the centrist ex-president Juan Manuel Santos and the Marxist guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) signed, with the support of the UN, a historic peace agreement. This pact enabled the disarmament of the oldest rebellion on the American continent, which appeared in 1964, and its transformation into a political party.

Read also: Colombia: the army on alert after threats from the ELN guerrillas