Colombia: UN rights office condemns murder of four civilians, including priests

The United Nations human rights office in Colombia has condemned the murder of four civilians, including two priests, in a north-eastern region of the conflict-wracked country and called on the competent authorities to find and punish the perpetrators.

The four were killed on Sunday by an illegal armed group in El Diviso in Norte de Santander Department.

The statement by the office was the latest intervention by various UN agencies over the devastating impact that four decades of fighting between leftist rebels, Government forces and rightist paramilitaries have had on the civilian population throughout the Andean country, where more than 2 million people have been displaced in the biggest humanitarian crisis in the western hemisphere.

“In deploring and rejecting this new act of violence against unarmed civilians, exacerbated by the priestly status of two of the dead, the Office stresses that the principles and norms of international human law concerning the protection of the civilian population must at all times and everywhere be fulfilled by those who directly participate in hostilities within the framework of internal armed conflict,” the statement said.

Just three weeks ago, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) warned that local communities in southern Colombia had been cut off by an armed blockade following intense fighting between irregular armed groups and the military and were suffering from a severe shortage of food and other essential items.