Through Law 1820 of 2016, by means of which provisions are issued on amnesty, pardon and special judicial treatment for members of the Security forces, the Ministry of National Defense was assigned with the competence to consolidate the lists of the members of the Military Forces that according to the norm were covered by the two special treatments provided for in this law.
Thus, as of that attribution granted by Law 1820, the Ministry of National Defense issued the resolution 0636 in February 2017, creating a committee, including a representative of each of the Military Forces and National Police, to prepare lists. The purpose of this committee is to review the cases in which the granting of special judicial treatment is requested, approving or disapproving in each case. Those that were approved were sent before March 15, 2018 to the Executive Secretariat of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) and after this date to the Chamber for the Definition of Legal Situations as established in the regulation.
To date, the National Army has a registry of 2,124 members and former members who have expressed their intention to submit to the Special Jurisdiction for Peace and the granting of special treatment provided for in Law 1820 of 2016. These respondents are 255 officers, 488 non-commissioned officers, 1,380 soldiers and one civilian.
774 members of the National Army remain active and 1,350 are in retirement. In the same way, to date, only 208 soldiers are deprived of their liberty waiting for the granting of special treatment, with respect to those whose proceedings continue in the JEP's Legal Situations Definition Room.
Active pedagogy on the essentials of the Agreement
Since before the signing of the Final Agreement for the Termination of the Conflict, the National Army carried out an active pedagogy so that the members of the Military Forces understood the essentials of the Agreement and the implications that it would have. These pedagogical activities have been extended to military and ordinary detention centers, where through trained personnel the legal nature of the Comprehensive System of Truth, Justice, Reparation and Non-Repetition has been transmitted, informing about the routes these judicial and extrajudicial mechanisms count on for the voluntarily election of each member of the institution.
In the same way, the National Army, as a member of the lists committee through the comprehensive Legal Department, has facilitated the submission of those who voluntarily wish to access the JEP, arranging, in coordination with the Jurisdiction of technical working groups, to seek the granting of special treatment for those who meet the requirements of the law.
Presentation of reports to the Special Jurisdiction for Peace
The judicial and extrajudicial mechanisms of the Comprehensive System have provided an excellent opportunity to give the country the reality of what happened in the conflict. In this sense, the National Army has made a significant contribution through the presentation of reports to the Special Jurisdiction for Peace and the Group for the Clarification of Truth, Coexistence and the Guarantee of Non-Repetition.
This is how the Military Forces has submitted reports with abundant evidence, which will lead the Truth Clarification Group to include the declaration of the Military Forces in its final report and, will also lead the Special Jurisdiction for Peace, to investigate, prosecute and punish those responsible for atrocious crimes committed against the civilian population and our men. Detailed reports have built clear contexts, through which it has been achieved the recognition of 21 military victims of the attack on the Miraflores base in the frame of the Case No.1 conducted in the JEP against the FARC.
In the same way, the Genesis report was presented, which, through military intelligence, presents an analysis of the illegal activity of the Farc in the framework of the internal armed conflict. A report on the use of means and methods of illicit warfare used by the FARC in which the serious infractions of International Humanitarian Law committed by this armed group against the civilian population and soldiers of the National Army are counted. It is a report on members of the National Army and families victims of the situation of kidnapping and disappearance, being clear that the task continues.
Voluntary declarations of members and former members of the National Army in the JEP
The call made to a respondent to give voluntarily a declaration is directly sent by the JEP to each this respondent, without institutional mediation, which is why there is no way to know previously each judicial process. What happens in that process, is only known by the respondent party, its defender, the Public Ministry and the magistrates of the jurisdiction and their assistants, without any institutional participation.
In the pedagogical activities that the National Army has led since 2016, the members of the National Army have been informed on the importance of compliance with each of the procedures to which they are to be summoned by the Special Jurisdiction for Peace and by the Group for the Clarification of Truth, Coexistence and Non-repetition. This compliance has been absolutely clear, as the same Jurisdiction has reported, up to date all the declaration calls have been complied; that is, 92 voluntary declaration calls and 92 declarations completed.
The Comprehensive System of Truth, Justice, Reparation and Non-Repetition is a reality. Despite the adjustments or reforms proposed, there is currently a System incorporated into the Political Constitution and therefore the institutional call is to comply with and respect it.
The soldiers of land, sea and air are in the same way required to guarantee and defend the sovereignty of the nation, to obey the constitutional order, therefore, obeying the mandates of the Comprehensive System and all jurisdictions operating in Colombia as part of our mission.
Source: National Army
