Abstract

URREGO-MENDOZA, Diana Zulima. Armed conflict in Colombia and medical mission: medical narratives as survival memories. rev.fac.med. [online]. 2015, vol.63, n.3, pp.377-388. ISSN 0120-0011.  https://doi.org/10.15446/revfacmed.v63n3.45209.

Background. Developing memorials to face violence against medical missions in the context of armed conflict facilitates the creation of dialogue strategies to seek for reparation and forgiveness within the ongoing peace process. Objective. Through the personal narratives of interviewed Colombian doctors, to identify the typical cases of violation of protocols, treaties and rules of the International Humanitarian Law (IHL) in relation to medical missions. Materials and methods. A study was conducted with a qualitative hermeneutic approach by adopting the theoretical assumptions of the Ricoeurian narrative function, and analyzing the story plot of the experience, circumstances, time and sense of narrative. Results. The following types of offenses against the medical mission were identified: rules on paper, violation of neutrality, health activities or battlefield, the physician's loneliness, victims seeking refuge: civilians and the physician, and the harshness of war. Among the evidenced violations are the violence perpetrated against health facilities, the wounded and the sick, health staff and medical transportation. Conclusions. In the Colombian armed conflict, state and non-state actors have carried out violations that threaten medical missions. The lack of information and knowledge of the IHL and medical missions is prevailing. Despite this fact, in most cases doctors who shared their narratives were able to solve situations related to war crimes.

Keywords : War; Security measures; Medical missions; Official; Physicians; Personal narratives.

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