Colombia, rebels sign accord to end 52-year war

BOGOTA: Colombia’s centre-right government and the Marxist FARC rebel group signed a peace deal yesterday to end a half-century war that killed a quarter of a million people and once took the Andean country to the brink of collapse.

After four years of peace talks in Cuba, President Juan Manuel Santos, 65, and rebel leader Timochenko – the nom de guerre for 57-year-old Rodrigo Londono – warmly shook hands on Colombian soil for the first time and signed the accord with a pen made from a bullet casing.

A crowd of dignitaries chanted: “Long live Colombia, long live peace” as Santos handed Timochenko a dove pin. One man waved a large Colombian flag that had an extra white stripe in homage to the deal.

“The horrible night of violence that has covered us with its shadow for more than half a century is over,” Santos said tearfully.

“We open our hearts to a new dawn, to a brilliant sun full of possibilities that has appeared in the Colombian sky.”

Colombians will vote on Sunday on whether to ratify the agreement, but opinion polls show it should pass easily.

Attendees at the event, many of whom also wept, observed a minute of silence in memory of those killed, maimed, raped, kidnapped and displaced during the war.

The end of Latin America’s longestrunning war will turn the FARC guerrillas into a political party fighting at the ballot box instead of the battlefield.

“No one should doubt that we will conduct politics without arms,” said Timochenko, who asked for forgiveness from FARC victims.

“We are all prepared to disarm in our minds and our hearts.”

Guests at the ceremony in the Caribbean coastal city of Cartagena included UN secretary-general Ban Kimoon, Cuban President Raul Castro and US secretary of state John Kerry.

Showing its support for the peace deal, the European Union on Monday removed the FARC from its list of terrorist groups.

Kerry said the US would also review whether to take FARC off its terrorism list, and has pledged US$390 million (RM1.6 billion) for Colombia next year to support the peace process. – Reuters