Colombia’s largest rebel organization for the first time on Tuesday accepted partial responsibility for decades of bloodshed and called for a commission to investigate the causes of the armed conflict that has killed more than 200,000.
The admission from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) came after a similar one by the Colombian government and appeared to mark some progress in peace negotiations that have dragged on for nine months in Havana while fighting continues in Colombia.
“The FARC are aware that up to now, there have not been victors nor vanquished and the struggle continues,” said a statement, read by rebel negotiator Pablo Catatumbo on the sidelines of the talks. “Without a doubt, there has also been cruelty and pain provoked by our forces.”
The Colombian government and other sectors of society have accused the FARC, which has an estimated 8,000 members, of evading its responsibility for the bloodshed and displacement of millions of people over the years.
Last month, a government commission blamed the government, rebels and right-wing paramilitary forces for the carnage and suffering the conflict has caused.
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos acknowledged at the time that the Colombian state was responsible for serious violations of human rights during the conflict.
Discussions to end the longest and last remaining armed conflict in Latin America began in November last year.
The two sides, which are working through a five-point agenda, have only reached partial agreement on agrarian reform.
Negotiators now are discussing the FARC’s inclusion into the political system and then will move on to reparations to war victims, the drug trade and an end to the conflict.
The FARC statement said that it was proposing in the talks that a commission of Colombian and foreign experts be created to investigate the causes of the conflict with an eye toward war reparations.
“We must all recognize the need to approach the issue of victims, their identity and reparation with complete fidelity to the cause of peace and reconciliation,” it said.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in