Colombia’s Farc rebels celebrate historic disarmament

MESETAS, Colombia: Colombia’s leftist Farc rebel force was set to celebrate its disarmament on Tuesday after half a century of war against the state, bringing Latin America’s oldest civil conflict close to an end.

Farc leader Rodrigo Londono, alias Timochenko, was scheduled to formally conclude the disarmament process at a ceremony with President Juan Manuel Santos in the central town of Mesetas, the group’s historic base, later.

Part of a 2016 peace deal with the Farc, the move is a key part of efforts to end the long territorial and ideological conflict. But the process has been blighted by ongoing violence involving other armed groups in recent weeks.

“It marks the end of the main guerrilla group in the western hemisphere,” said Jorge Restrepo, Director of the conflict analysis centre CERAC.

“It marks the beginning of the post-conflict period... and of a difficult process country.”

United Nations monitors said on Monday they “have the entirety of the Farc’s registered individual arms stored away,” except for some that were exempted for transitional security at demobilization camps until August 1.

Separately, the UN mission is continuing to extract and destroy other weapons and munitions stashed in remote hiding places which the Farc have identified and surrendered to the monitors.

Londono called the disarmament “a historic moment for Colombia.” “The laying down of arms is an act of will, courage and hope,” he wrote on Twitter.

Santos said it was “the beginning of a new Colombia which is advancing towards peace,” in a Twitter message.

The former fighters are now due to make the transition into civilian life. The Revolutionary Armed Forces Colombia (Farc) will transform of of reconciliation in the into a political party after a congress in August.

The accord, first signed in November, was at first narrowly rejected by Colombians in a referendum before it was redrafted and pushed through congress.

Critics such as conservative political leader Alvaro Uribe said it was too lenient on Farc members, some of whom will get amnesties or reduced sentences for crimes committed during the conflict.

The Farc have promised to help stamp out the drug production that has fuelled the conflict in areas under its control.

The state promised to develop alternative sources of revenue for growers of coca, the raw ingredient of cocaine. The Farc launched its uprising in 1964 over land rights for poor rural communities.

The conflict drew guerrillas, right-wing groups and state forces. in leftist paramilitary