Story By: Jonathan Macias, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News
Video Credit: CEN/@UnidadVictimas
Seventy-two coffins containing the remains of the victims of a FARC terrorist attack in Colombia have been given to their families after 17 years waiting for them to be identified.
The remains were transferred to the city of Bojaya in the Coco Department in northwestern Colombia and belong to the victims of a terrorist attack carried out by The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in the city on the 2nd of May 2002.
According to local media, around 119 people were killed in the attack although local authorities have been unable to establish an official number.
The victims of the terrorist attack reportedly died when around 400 civilians were looking for shelter in the San Pablo Apostol Church in Bojaya and FARC fighters bombed it.
Video Credit: CEN/@FiscaliaCol
Reports state the victim’s dead bodies were buried in mass graves without being identified in 2002.
In 2017 the remains were dug up from the mass graves in Bojaya by the Nationa Legal Medicine Institute and taken to their facilities in Medellin after pressure from the Colombian association for victims of terrorism Unidad Victimas.
According to the Director of the National Institute of Legal Medicine Claudia Garcia, 72 bodies were successfully identified thanks to new genetic techniques. Ninety-nine coffins were sent to the city, 27 of which contained the dead bodies of unborn children who died in the massacre and remains that could not be identified.
The Director of Unidad Victimas Ramon Alberto told local media: “Apart from all this, we want to continue with the processes of collective reparations for each of the victims”
The United Nations representative Alberto Brunori who supervised the process told local media: “It is now, that we can finally guarantee the participation of the families of the victims, that we can return of bodies”.
The bodies will be buried on 18th of November following traditional rituals in Bojaya.
In the video, women can be seen singing at a ceremony for mourning the victims and another clip shows the coffins arriving in Bojaya.
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