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News > Latin America

FARC Asks to Push Back Deadline for Disarmament

  • Members of FARC's 51st Front listen to a lecture on the peace process at a camp in Cordillera Oriental, Colombia, Aug. 16, 2016.

    Members of FARC's 51st Front listen to a lecture on the peace process at a camp in Cordillera Oriental, Colombia, Aug. 16, 2016. | Photo: Reuters

Published 22 February 2017
Opinion

The rebel group says that disarmament zones are not yet ready and they are concerned over how weapons will be stored once surrendered.

Colombia’s transition to peace continues its turbulent path with the FARC asking the United Nations Tuesday to push back the start date for its disarmament amid allegations of peace treaty breaches from the Colombian government.

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In a letter released Tuesday to Jean Arnault, head of the U.N. mission in Colombia, the rebel organization said it was concerned over how weapons would be stored once disarmed and that dwellings in 26 disarmament camps were not yet ready in line with the guidelines set out in a peace treaty signed in November.

“If the zones are not finished, where do you plan to locate the containers? There seems to be more concern in the government for the location of the weapons than for the location of the people,” the FARC asked, according to El Espectador.

“It is not true that 80 percent of the common areas are completed as the Chancellery and the Office of the High Commissioner for Peace affirm,” the group said, adding that U.N. peace observers had been ignorant of a number protocols of the agreement.

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The FARC said that the government was “improvising” on parts of the protocols and said the majority of disarmament zones had problems with clean drinking water, electricity and road connectivity. The rebel group claimed that a number of troops were forced to make dormitories out of plastic and sticks.

While the government has recognized the logistical problems in the disarmament zones, on Monday it said that the 180-day deadline given for the FARC to start disarming would not change.

The FARC also urged for the implementation of an amnesty law for FARC troops over political crimes, which remains in limbo after being passed in December by the Colombian Congress.

“After several months of signing the agreement there is no legal security for the guerrillas,” the group said.

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