“I believe in the sincerity of the statements of those present. I believe in what you still, so many years later, must feel in your hearts and in your minds. All of us, [I mean] who have been victims, always claiming a truth that has been hidden from us. When we find that those who caused so much pain are presented to the people (...) we can have hope of building a country.”
This was stated by the Minister of National Defense, Iván Velásquez, in his speech at the truth recognition hearing held by the Special Justice for Peace (JEP), in which the military responsible for 49 forced disappearances, reported as combat casualties in Dabeiba, Antioquia, disappearances committed between 2002 and 2006, appear during this Tuesday.
Before justice, the victims and the country, at the municipal Destrezas Dabeibanas coliseum, Minister Velásquez said that, given this demonstration of truth, the Government is committed to work for peace, truth and Human rights, “and in all that commitment, in all that purpose, not simply for reconstructing the events of the past, but mainly for preventing these events from happening again.”
“I believe that the truth is the supreme commitment of non-repetition, because when we know about these facts of such gravity, I believe that, in all hearts and minds, the feeling, of not only the natural repudiation of the facts of this nature, but also in deep pain, will in the same way serve in the future to know that when similar situations could begin to happen, there may, in the same way, be victims in whom we believe more” Velásquez highlighted.
In addition, the head of the Defense said that there is no interest in the Government and, there can be no interest in the Military Forces, for hiding shameful facts, and that, in that acceptance of truth, democracy is really going to be built: “We are always told to forget, to turn the page, we are asked : until when? [well,] until we read the book! We don't turn the page, without having read it.”
Within the framework of the audience, the Minister congratulated the Special Jurisdiction for Peace, for doing so much for the truth. “This novel mechanism has led to so many victims being able to even get closer to those who were their aggressors, and in what a reunion means now, in a very different attitude from that of so many years ago, in which the environment was one of terror, death and suffering, but today, when in the same way there is pain, a reunion of pain, but in the same way a reunion of spiritual reconstruction, in each of those present and in the victims, and in the same way in the inhabitants and in society" Velásquez said.
Finally, the Minister said that society is in a process of spiritual reconstruction, and also that there is a reconstruction as a country, about this he affirmed that “not only the court, the victims and those who appear, but also the Government will do everything, we all will give all the conditions so that all those who appear can contribute to the truth. We will not generate any restrictions, on the contrary, we will promote attitudes in those who appear to make a country in which we can live with dignity."
Source: Defense Sector Communications Office - Ministry of National Defense
