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Danger zones keep Colombians from burying their dead

Zamira Diaz has a map showing where her brother Oswaldo is buried. But like many who have lost loved ones in Colombia's civil conflict, she cannot go and find him. Oswaldo lies in one of the "red zones" -- rebel-held areas where even the police will not dare go and search. The hand-drawn maps bear instructions on how to get through the jungle to a spot several hours away on foot, where Oswaldo is thought to be buried. "It is a no-go zone," Zamira says. "It is guerrilla territory, all covered with pine trees. It is still too dangerous to go there." As the government and Marxist FARC rebels close in on a peace deal, Oswaldo represents one of the challenges to reconciliation after half a century of conflict: he is one of tens of thousands of victims listed as "missing." A town councillor from Palmira in the southwestern region of Cauca, he disappeared on October 15, 2001. He was 42. Four men with guns came and took him away in front of his 13-year-old son, says Zamira, 64. Zamira keeps the maps in a thick file of documents about her brother. They were given to her by one of the campaigners working to find missing victims. When she received them, Zamira told the police but they did not do anything, she says. "When security conditions are difficult, the public officials go accompanied by the police or the army, depending on the circumstances," the state prosecution service told AFP in a statement from its press service. "That way, they always reach the places where the events took place." The service did not say however whether officials had managed to get to the current resting place of Oswaldo Diaz, or of another missing victim, Manuel Castro Patino. - Abducted at breakfast - Patino's mother Mariela Patino, 56, says the youngest of her four children was taken away from their family farm one day while he was on leave from the army. "He was just finishing his military service. He was the baby of the family," she says, showing a photograph of Manuel aged 20 in his military fatigues. "We were having breakfast when six members of the FARC showed up. They accused him of being an army informer," she told AFP. "I reported it and started putting up notices everywhere. The FARC told me if I didn't leave, they wouldn't be responsible for my life or my family's." She abandoned her home and moved to the city of Cali where she opened a beauty salon. She joined "The Missing Ones," an association campaigning to find lost victims of the conflict. One day, a FARC commander admitted to her that Manuel was buried in one of the no-go areas. "We went there but didn't find him. I passed the information to the state prosecutors. That was eight years ago," she says. "It is a red zone and the authorities cannot go there." - Ransom demands - Oswaldo's family received ransom demands -- for as much as $67,000. Neither they nor many other families in the same situation could afford that. Twice they took DNA tests to identify bodies which turned out not to be Oswaldo. In 2014, the FARC admitted that they had killed him when he tried to escape. According to official figures, prosecutors have located 6,500 out of 45,000 people estimated to have gone missing during the conflict. Of those, 3,100 bodies have been returned to their families. "We have fought every way we can for them to tell us the truth," Zamira says, choking on her tears. "They must tell us where they are -- not just my brother, but all the missing people."