After two days of hearing at the Adolfo Mejía Theater in Cartagena, where the victims of the armed conflict who converge in the area of the Canal del Dique and authorities were heard, by the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP), the magistrates determined adopt precautionary protection measures over the area of influence of the body of water.
In the diligence carried out by the First Instance Section for Cases of Absence of Recognition of Truth and Responsibility, the Ministry of Transport and the National Infrastructure Agency (ANI) were ordered to design a “forensic archaeological protocol for the search of people considered missing” in this body of water.
“This protocol must have a differential ethnic and gender approach within four months as development of the PPP bidding process,” the magistrates order.
Also it was determined that they must constitute a technical table with the advice of the Search Unit of Persons presumed to be Missing and the Attorney General’s Office delegated to the JEP.
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“The protocol must be applied in any type of intervention of the Canal del Dique derived from the ongoing contractual process or those that add, modify or replace it. Order the Ministry of Transportation and the ANI that, within the framework of the technical table of the aforementioned protocol, have as its purpose not only the treatment of fortuitous findings of bodies, but the guarantee of the rights of the victims related to the search, discovery, exhumation, treatment and dignified delivery”, said Judge Alejandro Ramelli.
The decision also covers Cormagdalena. “Before starting any type of intervention in the Canal del Dique, you will have to report and have the support of that high court and the Search Unit for Persons Given as Disappeared,” it was indicated.
In the case of the Ministry of Transportation, it will have to set up an inter-institutional articulation table made up of the ANI, the Colombian Chamber of Infrastructure, Search Unit for Missing Persons, Ministry of the Environment, the Anla, Prosecutor’s Office and the Institute of Legislative Medicineal, to the directorate of indigenous and minority affairs, black, Afro-Colombian, Raizal and Palenquera communities, prior consultation authority of the Ministry of the Interior, Colombian Institute of Anthropology and History with the accompaniment of the Attorney General’s Office delegated to the JEP.
“In the bosom of said table Within six months, a document of guidelines for protocols for the safeguarding and protection of unidentified bodies must be prepared of presumed victims of the armed conflict with the purpose of guaranteeing, identification and dignified delivery of projects in future works and projects in Colombia”, expressed the magistrate of the JEP.
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In the case of the Deputy Attorney General of the Nation, Martha Manceramust develop an action plan in two months to overcome impunity in the Canal del Dique, “which includes serious human rights violations, especially forced disappearances attributable to illegal armed groups, state agents and civilian third parties.”
The decision is also addressed to the Investigation and Accusation Unit (UIA) of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace, to “perform within 30 calendar days, judicial inspection of the Albornoz neighborhood cemetery, located in Cartagena, in order to identify the bodies of people considered missing in the Canal del Dique”.
