FARC: Peace Not Possible Until Colombia Ends Paramilitarism
FARC: Peace Not Possible Until Colombia Ends Paramilitarism
Published 21 January 2016
The FARC denounced that for now paramilitary activity is multiplying, which poses an enormous threat to ending 50 years of conflict in Colombia.
FARC rebels and the Colombian government launched talks Thursday to discuss strategies to tackle paramilitary violence, which the FARC has repeatedly signaled is an urgent issue and the greatest threat to the ongoing peace process in Havana, Cuba, and a successful end to over five decades of internal armed conflict.
According to the Armed Revolutionary Forces of Colombia, also known as the FARC, the two sides will have a “deep debate” focused on how to overcome the “scourge of paramilitaries.”
“Unfortunately, we have to note that while we begin this discussion, paramilitary activity is multiplying,” FARC peace negotiator Pablo Catatumbo said in a statement in Havana, adding that paramilitaries are the biggest threat to definitive peace.
Catatumbo argued that it would be unrealistic for the armed guerrilla group to commit to becoming a legal political movement without “certain guarantees” that the paramilitary forces involved in the armed conflict will also be dismantled, AFP reported.
Among potential new approaches, the FARC proposed implementing new laws that would punish “the promotion, organization, (and) official or private funding of paramilitary structures and practices” as a strategy to crack down on paramilitary activity.
More:
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/FARC-Peace-Not-Possible-Until-Colombia-Ends-Paramilitarism-20160121-0035.html
