Colombia investigates forced abortions among Farc fighters

Attorney general looking 150 cases of former fighters who said they were forced to abort

Dutch woman Tanja Nijmeijer, a member of  Farc,  who is part of peace talks with the Colombian government. Photograph: Alejandro Ernesto/EPA
Dutch woman Tanja Nijmeijer, a member of Farc, who is part of peace talks with the Colombian government. Photograph: Alejandro Ernesto/EPA

Scores of women fighters were forced to undergo abortions under a policy of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) in their five-decade war against the government, Colombia’s top prosecutor said on Friday.

Attorney General Eduardo Montealegre said his office was investigating 150 cases of former female rebel fighters who had given testimonies saying they were forced to terminate their pregnancies.

“We have evidence to prove that forced abortion was a policy of the Farc that was based on forcing a female fighter to abort so as not to lose her as an instrument of war,” Montealegre told local media.

One Farc fighter, Claudia Roa, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in an interview in 2013 she was given pills to induce the birth of her baby eight months into her pregnancy, when she was aged 14. The baby was then suffocated.

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In the past the Farc has denied forcing women and girls to undergo abortions, and said contraception was provided to female fighters in their ranks.

– Reuters