‘Horrible night of violence’ has new dawn
Colombia’s Centre-right government and the Marxist Farc rebel group signed a peace deal yesterday, ending 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 white dove pin. One man waved a large Colombian flag that had an extra white stripe in homage to the peace deal.
‘‘The horrible night of violence that has covered us with its shadow for more than half a century is over,’’ Santos said. ‘‘We open our hearts to a new dawn, to a brilliant sun full of possibilities that has appeared in the Colombian sky.’’
Attendees observed a minute of silence in memory of those killed, maimed, raped, kidnapped and displaced during the war.
The end of Latin America’s longest-running war will turn the Farc guerrillas into a political party fighting at the ballot box instead of the battlefield they have occupied since 1964.
‘‘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 were asked to wear white and included United Nations Secretary-general Ban Ki Moon, Cuban President Raul Castro and US Secretary of State John Kerry.
The European Union yesterday removed the Farc from its list of terror groups.
Kerry said Washington has pledged US$390 million (NZ$536M) for Colombia next year to support the peace process. Former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott has issued a message to politicians on all sides of parliament about a proposed national vote on same-sex marriage: whatever the people want must be accepted. Despite his strong views against