Colombia students honour ‘false positives’ victims

Activists in Colombia's capital commemorated the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances by taking dozens of pairs of rubber boots to a public square and laying them out in a rectangular shape.

Some laid down inside the rectangle and used their bodies to make the number 6,402, in allusion to the number of people who were allegedly kidnapped by Colombian soldiers, executed and presented as dead rebels, as the Colombian army fought guerrilla groups in the first decade of this century.

The so-called "false positive" cases are among many war crimes that are currently under investigation in Colombia, following a 2016 peace deal between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia that ended decades of war.

In March, the Special Jurisdiction for Peace, a tribunal created by the peace accords, said that 6,402 civilians were killed by soldiers and presented as enemy combatants between 2002 and 2008.

During that time, soldiers and officers were encouraged by their superiors to kill greater numbers of rebel fighters, in exchange for promotions and vacation time.

Protesters in Bogota said that they would like to see those who killed civilians, or covered up the murders of civilians to be brought to justice.

"Our message is that something like this should never happen again," said Rafael Orozco, the protest's organizer.

"This cannot happen, and we cannot allow institutions to commit such crimes."

Beatriz Mendez, whose son was killed by soldiers and presented as a rebel fighter in 2004, said that she went to the protests to make sure that his death, and that of other youths, would be remembered.

"We are here to speak for them. If they no longer have a voice we will speak for them" Mendez said.

The International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances was created in 2010 by the United Nations, as the number of cases of forced disappearances rose around the world.