A/HRC/10/32
page 11
Cauca), which left 1 person dead and 26 injured, in September 2008, and on the village of
Ituango (Antioquia) in August 2008, in which 55 people were injured and 7, including 1 child,
died.14
30. The steady increase in the number of anti-personnel mines planted by guerrilla groups has
caused numerous civilian and military casualties, among them children.15 Examples include the
death in Palmira (Valle del Cauca) of a pregnant woman and her nine-month-old daughter in
January 2008; three children who died in the Awá indigenous reservation of Planadas de
Telembi (Nariño) in June 2008; and the case of a 6-month-old child and his 17-year-old mother
injured in Valdivia (Antioquia) in October 2008. In December 2008, two persons travelling to
San Vicente del Caguán (Caquetá) in a Colombian Family Welfare Institute (ICBF) vehicle were
killed by a roadside explosive allegedly triggered by FARC-EP.
31. FARC-EP and ELN continued to recruit children for intelligence work, logistical support
and direct involvement in hostilities. For example, in San Isidro (Norte de Santander), as a result
of an armed confrontation between ELN and the army in April 2008, seven members of the
guerrilla group were killed, among them four children aged 14 to 17. In Valle del Guamuez
(Putumayo), two children aged 13 and 15 were killed when resisting recruitment by, it is
thought, FARC-EP in January 2008.
32. There were reports of forced displacement caused by threats and acts of violence attributed
to FARC-EP and ELN. Other situations of forced displacement were the result of armed
confrontation between these guerrilla groups, as was the case in Arauca in January 2008, where
more than 2,500 people, including the indigenous communities of Iguanitos and Caño Claro,
were uprooted.
33. Several cases of sexual violence against women and girls were attributed to FARC-EP,
including sexual assault on a 14-year-old girl recruited earlier in Palmira (Valle del Cauca).
34. Ambulances and medical missions continued to be threatened and attacked by FARC-EP.
For example, two soldiers who had been wounded by an anti-personnel mine and who were
being carried in an ambulance were killed in Yarumal (Antioquia) in April 2008, allegedly by
members of this guerrilla group.
2.
Security forces
35. OHCHR Colombia recorded indiscriminate attacks on the civilian population, allegedly
carried out by members of the security forces.
14
15
An OHCHR Colombia statement of 15 August 2008 condemned this attack.
The Presidential Programme for Comprehensive Action against Anti-Personnel Mines had
recorded, as of November 2008, over 170 civilian victims of mines in 2008, including
38 children, and more than 430 members of the security forces. Colombia is among the countries
where the number of mine victims is highest (7,290 victims from 1990 to November 2008).
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