UK Will Contribute $7.6 Million to Fund Colombian Peace Process

Christof Lehmann (nsnbc) : During her visit to the Colombian capital Bogota, Joyce Anne Anelay, the UK’s Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, said that the United Kingdom would contribute $7.6 million to international funds that seek to finance ongoing peace efforts in Colombia. The Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – Peoples’ Army (FARC-EP) are expected to sign a final peace accord this year while the second-largest leftist guerrilla, the National Liberation Army (Ejército de Liberación Nacional – ELN) stresses that it is waiting for the government to take the next step to formalize peace talks abd include the ELN in the talks in Havana, Cuba.

JJoice Aneley_UK_Gov_Wikioyce Anne Anelay said that the UK would additionally contribute $1.7 million to the European Union’s fund for peace building in Colombia. In January FARC-EP Chief negotiator Ivan Marquez and the Peace Commissioner of the Colombian government, Sergio Jaramillo, spoke before a European Parliament session through a video link that was set up between Brussels, Bogota and Havana, Cuba where peace talks continue.

Ivan Marquez asked the European Union to end its designation of the FARC-EP to remove the FARC-EP from its list over terrorist organizations. The EU designated the FARC-EP as a terrorist organization in June 2002, in the wake of the controversial and still unsolved terrorist attacks in the USA on September 11, 2001, and the launch of the so-called Global War on Terror. The FARC-EP had no connection with the still highly debated and questionable 9/11 attacks.

Iván Márquez, FARC-EP Chief Negotiator.

Iván Márquez, FARC-EP Chief Negotiator.

Marquez stressed that the FARC-EP and the Colombian government had adhered to the bilateral ceasefire since January 1, 2016, and that the FARC-EP was being transformed into a non-violent political organization. Marquez told EU MPs that:

“The right and consequent thing to do is the delete the FARC from the list of terrorist organizations with the same swiftness with which we were included”.

The FARC-EP considers its designation as a terrorist organization as an obstacle for the road to peace and the transformation into a non-violent political organization said Marques.

The final peace accord, scheduled to be signed in 2016 will end 51 years of civil war in Colombia. Both the FARC-EP and the government agree that the main threat to security in Colombia today arises from ultra-right-wing neo-paramilitaries including Los Urabenos.

ELN fighters_Colombia_(archives)

ELN waiting in the wings and for a formal invitation to Havana

The Colombian government has also initiated peace talks with the second-largest left-wing paramilitary group, the ELN.

The ELN, however, stresses that the government has not provided a new time and date for a new meeting after the last round of unofficial talks, and that the ELN is waiting for and ready to join the official peace talks in Havana.

The UK’s Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs noted that extra funds will be added to ongoing British aid for a series of social projects in Colombia carried out by the government as well as by non-government organizations.

Anelay added that the UK, apart from financial aid, also is providing all possible diplomatic and technical support to end the conflict and the transition to the post-conflict phase. The latter statement has widely been interpreted as support that, for better of for worse, is based on the end of the armed conflict between Britain and the Irish Republican Army (IRA).

The administration of Colombian President Manuel Santos and the FARC-EP have held peace talks in the Cuban capital Havana since 2012 and reached several landmark agreements on issues including political participation of the FARC and grassroots organization after the end of the conflict, land and rural reform, and agreement on illicit drugs , compensation for victims of the conflict and more.

CH/L – nsnbc 16.03.2016

Source Article from http://nsnbc.me/2016/03/16/uk-will-contribute-7-6-million-to-fund-colombian-peace-process/

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