Colombia’s justice minister said Tuesday he wanted former members of illegal armed groups like the FARC, EPL and M-19 to apologize for crimes they committed and to compensate their victims.
Minister of Justice Juan Carlos Esguerra said he wants to recommend the Executive Committee for Attention and Reparation to Victims to force around 10,000 people who laid down their arms in the 1990s to contribute to the reparation process of their victims.
“These demobilized cannot refuse to perform the actions of symbolic reparation imposed on them by the Executive Committee, because they have to comply with the legal mandate,” Esguerra said.
The minister said that the demobilized fighters should also provide information needed to the solve crimes they contriuted to or committed in order to provide closure for the victims.
Guerrilla groups like the EPL and M-19 officially demobilized around 1991, when Colombia adopted a new constitution.
