Mieria en colombia

Chapter 5
The victims: an unjust war
Acknowledgements
Collaboration: Fundación Social y Luis Alberto Bonilla, Ana María Díaz, Catalina Díaz, Carmen Elisa
Echeverría, Rodolfo Escobedo, SandraMilena Gavilán, Astrid Gómez Hilarión, Beatriz Helena
Gutiérrez, Luis Manuel Lasso, Patricia Luna, Marlene Mesa Sepúlveda, Mariany Monroy, Ruth Yanira
Nieto, Tatiana Olarte Fernández, Luis CarlosOsorio, María Eugenia Querubín, Edith Puerto, Carlos
Rúa, Paola Ximena Silva, Carmen Elisa Soto and María Eugenia Vásque z.
The conflict’s human cost is not only a question of the numerical impact on theindexes of development
or on economic growth, political democracy and the international standing of Colombia. There is a
more direct impact, a more obvious and dramatic one, on those who suffer theimmediate effects of
war: the violation of their basic rights by armed groups. This chapter deals with the victims, and takes
an overall look at information which is normally dispersed. In Section Awe will look at the victims in
certain detail, according to the kind of aggression they suffer, and in Section B, according to
professions or especially vulnerable minorities. In closing, Section Cwill ask whether or not the
conflict has become degraded in recent times.
A. Victims according to kinds of aggression
Armed groups carry out six kinds of aggression against people’s lives or theirintegrity, namely: i)
against armed enemies in the course of combat: ii) against the civilian population which really (or
supposedly) constitutes the adversaries’ “social basis”, and especiallyiii) against civilians forced to
abandon their dwelling places (“displaced persons”); iv) against civilians who suffer the so-called
“collateral damage” caused by attacks; v) against civilianpopulations in order to terrorize them; and vi)
against people who are kidnapped (or “retained”) to obtain economic or political advantage.
1. Violence in combat
Deaths (homicides) or wounds and maiming...