Victims of armed conflict are compensated

Maximiliano Sabogal was murdered by revolutionary armed forces of Colombia (Farc) guerrillas in front of his wife and 7 year old daughter.

Sabogal owned a small farm in the Santander de Quilichao region in the department of Cauca. 

He had just arrived home from working on the farm when six Farc guerrillas raided his house, trying to evict the family from their land in April 1992.

When Sabogal resisted, he was shot twice in the head.

Two decades later, Sabogal’s wife, Yolanda Vacca, and daughter were compensated for their tragic loss as they received $10 million Colombian pesos (US$5,502) from the government as part of the victims and land restitution law, passed in July 2.011.

“I went through a hard time after the death of my husband,” Vacca, 55, says. “

We left the farm, moved to Santander de Quilichao’s urban area and I worked as a maid.”

With the compensation, Vacca remodeled her house and put the rest in a savings account.

“My daughter works in a factory, but I’d like to save money to send her to college,” she said.

Since January, when the Special Administrative Unit for the Support and Integral Reparation of Victims  also known as the Victims Unit was established, a total of $330,938 million Colombian pesos (US$182,900) was paid to 55,630 victims of guerrilla violence.

The government’s goal is to pay $800 million Colombian pesos (US$440,165) in compensation to 110,000 victims by December. 

Amounts range from $1 million Colombian pesos (US$550) to $22 million (US$12,104) per person.

Humanitarian missions

The Victims Unit also performs humanitarian missions.

In the first half of 2.012, an investment of $370 million Colombian pesos (US$203,576) funded 313 missions, in which about 429,000 families who were displaced by the armed conflict received basic aid along with toiletries, food, water and other items.

However, the government plans to offer more than just financial and humanitarian aid.

Most victims lost relatives, saw their children forcibly recruited, kidnapped, tortured, beaten or sexually abused by guerrillas.

Victims Unit Director Paula Gaviria Betancur said the government must promote community reconstruction and help victims resume their lives.

“Support of armed conflict victims is now at the forefront of the country’s politics,” Paula added.

The first step in this direction was the implementation of the Unique Register of Victims (RUV), which through a partnership with the Public Prosecutor’s Office, offers an automated system for victims to register so they can receive benefits.

The RUV tracks victims’ progress after they receive compensation, Paula said.

“We want victims to actively participate in the process of restoring their rights,” she added.

Thousands of small-scale farmers in Colombia have been forced off their lands by guerrilla groups. 

The new Land Restitution Unit will help them recover their property. 

The Victims Unit, in addition to offering financial assistance to individuals, also is funding projects to rebuild communities that lost schools, plazas and streets to attacks carried out by the Farc and the National Liberation Army (eln).

The government has already started the reparation process in 32 municipalities in the departments Bolívar, Sucre, Guajira, Putumayo, Antioquia and Cauca.

Land Restitution

The Victims and Land Restitution Law led to the establishment of another agency: the Special Administrative Unit for the Management of Land Restitution. 

Established in January, this unit has already received 19,103 requests from small-scale farmers who are asking for the return of 1.5 million hectares (3.7 million acres) of land they claim were taken from them by guerrillas.

Twenty three special courts also were created to try cases arising from Land Restitution Unit records.

However, the first cases are in the early phases of analysis and evidence-gathering. 

The act sets a five-month deadline for victims to receive an opinion on their land restitution request. 

If there is proof of loss, the case goes to trial and a judge has four months to issue a ruling.

“Restitution is the most delicate part since it involves the interests of illegally armed groups that unjustly occupy the small-scale farmers’ lands,” said Land Restitution Unit Director Jesús Ricardo Sabogal.

Threats and deaths

The legal deadline to implement land restitution is 10 years because the internal conflict is ongoing, Sabogal said.

“We need to enforce the law safely,” he added. “

When the time comes for land restitution, we need to begin in the places where the government has more control.”

Even before the restitutions were approved, nearly 100 people reported receiving threats from guerrillas occupying their lands.

Since January, three civilians a farmer leader and his son in the department of Chocó and another farmer leader in the department of Sucre have been killed by guerrilla and criminal groups engaged in narco-trafficking, according to the Security Unit.

Sabogal said court-ordered security details provided by the Land Restitution Unit have protected other small-scale farmers who have reported being threatened by guerrillas or criminal groups.

“The synergy between the Land Restitution Unit and the Colombian Ministry of Defense is being reinforced to prevent this from happening again,” he says.

The most important step so far has been that the government managed to approve the law,” said Alonso Tobón, a political scientist for the Conflict Analysis Resource Center (Cerac).