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News > Latin America

Colombian Gov't, FARC Make Landmark Accord Over Disappeared

  • A woman commemorates a group of victims killed or

    A woman commemorates a group of victims killed or "disappeared" in the armed conflict in Medellin. | Photo: EFE

Published 18 October 2015
Opinion

Both sides agreed to a program of search, identification, and delivery of the remains of those “disappeared” in the armed conflict.

The Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia reached a landmark agreement Saturday to begin the search, identification and return of people “disappeared” during the half-century of armed conflict.

“Two types of accords have been agreed: in the first place to put into action some primary immediate humanitarian measures of search, location, identification and dignified delivery of the remains of the “disappeared,” announced Cuban diplomat, Rodolfo Benitez in Havana, where long-standing peace talks between negotiators for the guerrilla group and Colombian authorities have been facilitated by Cuba and Norway.

RELATED: Piedad Cordoba: Paramilitaries ‘Huge Threat’ to Colombian Peace

To go through with the breakthrough deal, negotiators requested support from the International Committee of the Red Cross, to design and put into action the special humanitarian plans.

The Institute of Legal Medicine has also been called upon to organize an action plan.

The move is designed to end the bloody internal conflict protagonized by guerrilla groups, paramilitaries, state security forces and drug traffickers, leaving some 220,000 dead and 6 million displaced in their wake.

Negotiators emphasized two key points for the new agreement. First, the Colombian government must speed up the identification and dignified delivery of the remains of victims killed in state operations, and have them buried in cemeteries in areas most poignantly affected by the conflict.

The FARC meanwhile will provide information of the location and identification of the remains of victims, and will contribute to their dignified delivery.

RELATED: The Colombian Peace Process Explained

The Commission of Search for Disappeared Persons will play a part in the project, making a plan of recommendations, in consultation with victims and human rights specialists.

Finally, negotiators decided to create a special unit for the “search of disappeared persons in the context and because of the armed conflict.”

“This unit will have a humanitarian character ... It will enjoy the necessary independence and administrative and financial autonomy,” said an official statement.

The development comes almost a month after President Juan Manuel Santos and FARC chief Rodrigo Londoño Echeverri, alias Timochenko, had a historic meeting in Havana, in which they signed an accord on justice and the rights of victims.

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