The Victims Reparation Unit also supported the logistics of the judicial ceremony and burials, in coordination with the JEP, the Prosecutor's Office and the National Institute of Legal Medicine.

With support for the logistics of the funeral ceremony, burials and psychosocial care for the families, the Unit for Comprehensive Attention and Reparation to Victims supported the dignified delivery of the remains of four people killed and disappeared by illegal armed groups in the municipality of Dabeiba (Antioquia).

In coordination with the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP), the Attorney General's Office and the National Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences, the relatives of Yulieth Andrea Tuberquia, Nelson Antonio Góez Manco, Alveiro Úsuga Uribe and Eliécer de Jesús Manco Úsuga received their bodies in a public ceremony held in the main park, after having been exhumed in previous years in different municipalities.

The Director of Reparation of the Victims Unit, Enrique Ardila Franco, participated in the official ceremony and accompanied the relatives in a procession between the local park and the local cemetery. The official highlighted the entity “accompanies the JEP, the Prosecutor's Office and Legal Medicine in the judicial proceeding of the delivery of bodies of the victims of forced disappearance in case 003 of the JEP (extrajudicial executions). As a Unit, we guarantee the family members all the accompaniment and psychosocial care and logistics for the dignified delivery of the bodies”.

Two of the identified victims, Alveiro Úsuga Uribe and Eliécer de Jesús Manco Úsuga, were murdered in November 1997 by a paramilitary group in the rural area of ​​Dabeiba and were buried without identifying, and one of them was accused of being part of an illegal group, which it was disproved by judicial investigations.

The identification of Yulieth Andrea Tuberquia and Nelson Antonio Góez, whose skeletal remains were exhumed by the International Committee of the Red Cross in Nariño, was achieved by taking DNA samples in Dabeiba in a conference between the JEP and the National Institute of Legal Medicine.

Advances in repair

The Victims Unit supports the exhumation and dignified delivery of the skeletal remains of disappeared persons as measures of psychosocial rehabilitation and satisfaction of comprehensive reparation, in addition to financial compensation.

This crime against humanity is reflected in the Single Registry of Victims, which includes more than 50.000 direct victims of forced disappearance from all over the country, while their relatives recognized as indirect victims subject to reparation are close to 132.000.

Psychosocial care has been provided throughout the country during the dignified delivery of almost 4.500 remains to more than 5.000 relatives and more than 1.500 in the exhumations carried out by the Prosecutor's Office.

Additionally, more than 60.000 people (indirect victims) have received financial compensation worth more than 415.000 million pesos throughout the country. In coordination with the Office of the Prosecutor, the Victims Unit also contributes to the expenses of transportation, food and accommodation of the relatives who attend the ceremonies and subsequent burials of the direct victims.  

(End/JCM/LMY)