7 Million Victims of Colombia's Conflict

 

6:34:39 a.m. 

The Victim's Unit report shows that 7,028,776 people were killed, forcibly disappeared or displaced since 1956. More than seven million Colombians have been victimized by the country's prolonged internal conflict, a government study has found, including 100,000 this year alone. 

The Victim's Unit report shows that 7,028,776 people were killed, forcibly disappeared or displaced since 1956, when political tensions culminating in the murder of liberal presidential candidate Jorge Eliecer Gaitan sparked the period known as La Violencia. 

The statistics show that the majority of victimization occurred after 2000, peaking in 2002 at 744,799 victims. 

Antioquia, with its notoriously violent capital of Medellin, is the state with most victims, followed by the capital city of Bogota. 

The paramilitary group United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) was officially demobilized in 2006, though members carried on their work in other guises, whilst the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia (FARC) guerilla group have been in peace talks with the government for the last two years. 

However, although significant progress was made, the dialogue was suspended this week due to the disappearance of a general. 

(TeleSur)