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Colombian gov’t annoyed by abuse of victim compensation law

23 September 2011 03:54 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The Colombian government said Thursday it is concerned on the possibility that a recently-passed victim compensation law might be abused for illegal profits, APA reports quoting news.yahoo.com website.

The Victims Law, adopted earlier this year, would provide economic compensation for personal property loss during the South American nation’s four-decade-long civil war that forced an estimated number of 4 million people to flee their homes.

Diego Molano, head of the social action program under the presidency, told reporters that a number of cases have been detected in which someone disguised as government-appointed lawyers to collect victim information.

"Now they’re using forms that are available on streets in the province of Antioquia" but grafted with fake signatures to seek economic benefits on behalf of victims who are not aware that they could benefit from the law."

In Colombia’s northmost province of Cesar, one of the areas which during the years have been among the worst affected by violence, leaflets are distributed with false information saying for a fee of approximately 10 U.S. dollars the process to obtain economic compensation can be sped up considerably, said Molano.

Transitional Justice Director of the Justice Ministry Miguel Samper told local press that the Attorney General’s office has already been involved in investigating such illegal activities.