BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Colombia’s peace tribunal on Tuesday issued its first sentence on war crimes committed during decades of internal conflict, finding seven former leaders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, FARC, guilty of imposing policies that led to the kidnapping of 21,000 people.
The court said that the rebel group kidnapped civilians for ransom to finance its operations, while also depriving soldiers and politicians of their liberty in hopes of exchanging them for imprisoned rebels.
For the next eight years, the former rebel leaders must work on projects to find the bodies of missing people and remove landmines from rural areas. They will also have to engage in symbolic acts of reparation with their victims. To ensure compliance, the seven leaders will follow a str