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By Staff Writers, teleSUR
teleSUR
Friday, Dec 26, 2014
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| Colombian lead government negotiator Humberto de la Calle (C) plants a tree as part of the peace conversations between the FARC-EP and the Colombian government in Havana December 16, 2014. (Photo: Reuters/Enrique De La Osa) | Photo: Reuters |
Overtures toward peace for 2015 include land reforms, future participation in politics, ending the drug trade, and the release of a captive Colombia soldier.
On Thursday, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, People’s Army (FARC-EP) has set peace as its resolution for 2015 in continuing talks with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, after the unilateral ceasefire went into effect on December 20.
In a New Year’s communique, the guerrilla group stressed that there is no better time than now to usher in a new era of fighting for freedom in a battle of ideas, not with guns and bombs.
“The amount of blood shed by combatants and the suffering of their families have been immensely large in this war between brothers. Therefore, there is no valid argument to extend this absurd confrontation,” the statement read.
Both sides have come to agreement on land reform, the FARC’s future participation in Colombian politics, and ending the drug trade. The talks are still in the air, though, regarding how victims of the over 50-year conflict can be compensated and on details of ending the armed conflict. The FARC also insisted again on Thursday that an impartial entity such as the Red Cross or a regional intra-governmental organization verify the ceasefire.
The government is postponing agreement on verifying the ceasefire until a later point in the negotiations and has likewise not yet committed to abstaining from attacks on the rebels. The Colombian government has refused to agree to a bilateral ceasefire and has rejected international monitoring of the ceasefire, despite the willingness of UNASUR to do so. Instead the government will monitor the compliance of the ceasefire. The Broad Front for Peace, based in Colombia, announced it is willing to act as a monitor of the ceasefire.
As opposed to previous ceasefires proposed over the holidays since the peace talks began in November 2012, this year’s announcement by the FARC includes the provision that the ceasefire would be indefinite, as long as government forces do not attack FARC installations.
The FARC emerged in 1964 out of a Marxist-influenced agrarian movement for land reform in Colombia and has been involved in a protracted conflict in the rural regions throughout the country under several administrations ever since.
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