Armed groups carried out the bulk of the rapes, forced hundreds more into prostitution
BOGOTA (AlertNet) – Colombia’s armed groups and, to a far lesser extent, its army raped 14,779 women between 2001 and 2009 - or five women a day on average - and forced hundreds more into prostitution, a study has found.
Based on existing data and its own interviews with 2,700 victims of sexual abuse, the report by Intermon Oxfam, a member of international aid group Oxfam, estimates that rebels were responsible for rapes of 12,809 girls and women and the armed forces committed the rest of those crimes during the nine-year period.
“Sexual violence constitutes a common and frequent practice in the context of the armed conflict,” Intermon Oxfam said in a statement after the launch of the report earlier this month.
For more than four decades Colombia has been mired in fighting between government troops, leftist rebels, cocaine smugglers and far-right paramilitary militias. The accompanying lawlessness is a key driver of sexual crimes. Armed groups also rape to punish and intimidate enemies and to instill fear among communities.
In addition, the groups forced more than 1,500 women and girls into prostitution between 2001 and 2009, while members of the armed forces coerced almost 1,000 women into sex work.
Sexual violence against women in Colombia is being carried out equally by non-armed men, including their partners and family members, Intermon Oxfam said. In total nearly 500,000 women suffered rape, forced prostitution, sexual harassment and forced abortion and sterilisation between 2001 and 2009.
Rights groups say sexual violence against women in Colombia is dramatically under-reported. Many victims are too afraid to inform the authorities because their fear reprisals from the perpetrators and have little faith in the police to hunt down and punish their attackers. Eighty-two percent of women who suffered sexual abuse said they had not reported the crime, according to the study.
The Colombian attorney general’s office is investigating only 589 cases of rape allegedly committed by former members of paramilitary groups.
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