A Colombian opposition senator on Thursday (October 7th) denounced the death of four minors in the bombardment by the army in mid-September of a guerrilla camp of the National Liberation Army (ELN) which had resulted in the death of one of its main leaders.
"
Of the eight people killed in this bombing, four were teenagers,
" said left-wing Senator Ivan Cepeda in a video posted on his Twitter account.
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To support his remarks, this member of the Alternative Democratic Pole quotes a document from the Colombian forensic authority reporting the death of two 17-year-old boys, a young woman of the same age and a 13-year-old minor. "
During the events of September 16 in the municipality of El Litoral de San Juan
", in the department of Choco, where the bombing took place.
"
Forced recruitment
"
Ivan Cepeda denounced the “
forced recruitment
” of minors by the ELN, but also the indiscriminate bombing of soldiers, methods prohibited by international humanitarian law.
In a statement, the army rejected the accusations, deeming its action "
legitimate, legal and within the framework
" of this right.
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“
It is necessary to keep in mind that it is the ELN that violates international humanitarian law (...) committing a war crime by forcibly recruiting minors and placing them in the middle of an objective military,
”argued the Colombian army.
"
Those who recruit minors are those responsible for crimes and violations of humanitarian law, it is they who must be denounced and not the police,
" added Defense Minister Diego Molano.
Two weeks after this bombardment, the army announced the death of Commander "
Fabian
", the leader of one of
the most active
"
Fronts
" of the ELN, who died of his wounds while in hospital after having been there all this time. hidden in the jungle before being found by the military.
Throughout the decades of conflict that bloodied Colombia, irregular forces recruited minors.
The tribunal created by the 2016 peace agreement with the Marxist guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) is investigating the forceful recruitment by this movement of nearly 6,000 children under the age of 14.
The ELN, the last active guerrilla in Colombia, has 2,450 combatants, according to the latest estimates from the independent think tank Indepaz.
