Since May 6, 2021, the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) issued precautionary measure 026, which prohibits any type of intervention in the old Paz de Ariporo cemetery.
The San José Cemetery worked until 1999 when it moved to a larger place on the outskirts of the municipality.
After a long controversy between the JEP and Mayor Eunice Escobar, where 3 days of arrest and a fine were ordered, the president appealed and showed that the municipality had already presented the proposal for the administrative transfer of the old cemetery.
Proposal in six phases
The Mayor’s Office presented a proposal to transfer the old Paz de Ariporo cemetery, in six (6) phases as follows:
First phase: cleaning and readjustment of the property. This phase includes manual and mechanical felling, as well as the use of herbicides, under standard operating procedures, by qualified personnel.
Second level: diagnosis and characterization of vaults, graves and graves that includes:
• Call and location of relatives of people buried in the cemetery to reinforce awareness activities, allow relatives to express to the government secretariat their willingness to transfer their relatives to Jardines de Paz or to the place they decide. It is planned to post an edict in visible places in the municipality; carry out massive dissemination on social networks, local, departmental, community stations and community WhatsApp networks and meeting with neighboring residents of the cemetery.
• Inventory and numbering of vaults, which requires the construction of a topographic survey technical file, definition of polygons, numbering and marking, prioritization of places, for which it proposes delimiting three polygons as follows: the first that includes the largest area to intervene with the presence of vaults and shallow tombs; the second with areas where there are no vaults but graves could be found on the ground and where, according to information from the Unit for the Search for Persons Deemed Disappeared -UBPD- “presumably there may be other unidentified corpses -CNI-, or identified corpses unclaimed -INCR-”; and the third that corresponds to graves
°Third Phase of enlistment of disposal places in the Jardines de Paz cemetery for which, despite the indeterminacy of the required places, by virtue of the provisions of article 42 of D. 303 of 2015 and Resolution 5194 of 2010, the use of eighteen (18) new ossuaries available, intended for bodies transferred with the accompaniment of families and the construction of a block of vaults or tombs for CNI and CINR provisions. The mayor’s office as administrator of the cemetery would dispose of the resources through the municipal budget and efforts for concurrence of the department or the Nation for the construction of said work.
Fourth phase recovery of skeletonized bodies in vaults and pits. Based on the characterization and prior enlistment of the places of disposal, the prospecting and recovery of the bodies would be carried out under the leadership of an anthropology professional with certified experience in archeology or bioarchaeology, contemplating the technical requirements according to the place to be intervened as indicated in the proposal, as well as the care and records required once each body is recovered.
fifth phase transfer and disposal of bodies in the Jardines de Paz cemetery. It is expected that the duly packed, sealed and labeled bodies will be transported complying with the principles of safety, preservation and dignity for their burial.
phase sixth Preparation and submission of the forensic technical report of the transfer. In this regard, the Secretary General and Secretary of Government, as supervisor of the eventual contract that is signed, must require the contractor to present a detailed and structured report that will be sent to the JEP and the UBPD.
The proposal contemplates that the transfer be covered with unrestricted resources, of which there are eighty million pesos ($80,000,000) for the 2023 term. The proposal indicates that the time contemplated for carrying out the transfer of the cemetery is 5 months from the approval of the proposal by the SAR.
Finally, the administration proposes a team made up of a forensic anthropology professional to carry out the actions; professional expert in cartography or social professional with knowledge in geographic information systems, social personnel for management with families and the community and forensic professional for the implementation of forensic protocols for the transfer of bodies and as products to be delivered:
i) diagnosis document of the state of the cemetery;
ii) list of vaults and pits;
iii) detailed sketches with location of sites;
iv) schedule of activities
d) budget project of the administrative transfer process
Also read: With a precautionary measure, JEP ordered not to intervene in the old Paz de Ariporo cemetery
Justification of the process (parts taken from official JEP document)
It was presented as compliance with the precautionary measure ordered by the SAR in order to guarantee the conditions of preservation and care of the bodies and remains of possible victims of the conflict that could be found in the cemetery, in which case coordination mechanisms will be established with the Missing Persons Search Unit – UBPD and the GRUBE.
In the document, a historical context and the current state of the cemetery were presented, based on which, there would be information that the first Paz de Ariporo cemetery would have been created with the municipality in 1953 and “was surrounded by lots unoccupied belonging to the municipality” which over the years were sold and occupied, for which it is possible that “some of the ancient tombs could have been lost as the houses were built”.
The administration indicated that the tombs of the old cemetery were handed over in perpetuity and that in the mid-nineties the property was saturated, for which reason its closure was ordered between 1997 and 1999 when the Jardines de Paz cemetery was opened, falling on old cemetery in institutional abandonment for which it presented an accelerated deterioration.
Due to the above, the 2011 land use plan17 provided for its transformation into an ecological park, for which the inhabitants of the municipality were summoned before the government secretary of the time to carry out the exhumation and transfer of their relatives to the new cemetery. Notwithstanding the foregoing, there are vaults occupied by: “skeletalized bodies and it is known of the existence of some graves in the ground that still contain bodies” and “the cemetery has been desecrated and looted by people who gradually began to take the bricks from the wall of perimeter enclosure and later of the rubble product of exhumations carried out, also going so far as to desecrate the tombs without exhuming, taking the tombstones and other elements that were sold as scrap or second-hand materials for construction“.
The official indicated that it is impossible to know the number of bodies that rest in the cemetery for the above reasons and the lack of administrative records related to exhumations and transfers made in the past.
Due to the precautionary measure, since 2021 the cemetery has a provisional enclosure, but “it is completely covered with vegetation and although the municipal administration carries out periodic felling, the presence of debris, holes and the presence of potentially dangerous animals (wasps, bees , spiders, snakes, among others) make it increasingly difficult to carry out cleaning tasks”.
Source: news – HOLA Casanare