Colombia church massacre victims ID’d with DNA put to rest
Posted Nov 18, 2019 3:06 pm.
BOGOTA — Relatives of those killed in a Colombia massacre are putting their loved ones to rest nearly two decades after the attack – while also warning the government hasn’t done enough to prevent a similar tragedy from happening again.
Family members held a ceremony Monday in the town of Bojayá following a painstaking process in which scientists used DNA to identify the remains of 79 people initially buried in a mass grave.
Relatives were handed small coffins holding the remains for burial.
Rev. Esterling Mena told family members the new burial is important because it means those killed will no longer be interred in a place “chosen by war.”
People were sheltering in a church as leftist rebels clashed with paramilitaries in 2002, and a mortar shell exploded inside, killing dozens.
The Associated Press
