Colombia’s government and leftwing Farc rebels have reached a final and comprehensive peace deal to end the country’s 52-year war that has left more than 220,000 people dead and six million displaced.
After four years at the peace table negotiators are due to sign the final deal Wednesday evening in Havana, where they have been holding talks since November 2012.
The signing will kick off what promises to be a frenzied campaign to ratify the deal in a popular plebiscite that could come in late September or early October.
Meanwhile the Farc’s estimated 7,000 fighters will hold a congress of their own to approve the deal and formally end their existence as a guerrilla army and transform into an unarmed political movement.
As part of the peace deal, they have agreed to concentrate their troops in 23 areas scattered across the country, where they will gradually hand over their weapons to UN observers over six months.
The deal includes agreements on rural development, political participation for a demobilised Farc, and fighting illegal drug crops and narco-trafficking, which has been a major source of funding for the rebels. It also sets up a transitional justice system for crimes committed during the conflict which will allow Farc members who confess their crimes to avoid serving their sentences in jail.
That is one point that is hard for many Colombians to accept. Five decades of rights abuses including kidnapping, indiscriminate mortar attacks of villages and towns, and the forced displacement of thousands have bred a deep-seated hostility and mistrust of the Farc.
Taking advantage of those feelings Sen Alvaro Uribe, a former president whose government from 2002-2010 severely weakened the Farc, is leading the campaign to reject the accords, claiming they should be renegotiated to include jail time for crimes against humanity and a ban on those convicted of such crimes from holding public office.
But the Santos government says if no wins in the vote, it will effectively mean an end of the negotiations and a return to war.
The most recent round of public opinion polls on the plebiscite show the yes and no votes practically tied with a third of voter intention each. Another third say they will abstain.
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Source: Guardian UK