What’s been happening with the Colombian peace process since November 2016?
PN used to track the Nepali peace process, and the state of play in Colombia has some similarities to what happened in Nepal.
Disarmament of the guerrillas and the political side of the peace process have made big strides but social reforms, the integration of former fighters and ‘transitional justice’ have moved more slowly.
Eight former guerrilla leaders of the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) took seats in parliament in July. Their disarmed political party was renamed the Common Alternative Revolutionary Force in 2017 (keeping the acronym FARC).
Meanwhile, over 80 former guerrillas have been killed in separate incidents. ‘This problem joins the murder of social leaders and we have to make efforts to overcome those difficulties,’ the head of the UN verification mission in Colombia, Raul Rosende, said on 22 November. 226 social leaders and human rights defenders have been killed in 2018 so far.
The tribunals investigating wartime crimes are slow-moving – though they are investigating army war crimes as well as FARC atrocities. Between 2002 and 2008, army brigades murdered more than 3,000 civilians and recorded them as enemies killed in combat, in ‘false positive’ killings.
Topics: Peacemaking