Colombia’s govt and FARC rebels ‘close to signing victims agreement’

(Image credit: El Pueblo)

The Colombian government and the country’s largest guerrilla group, the FARC, could be on the verge of an agreement on the fate of the victims of the civil conflict, signing a deal this week.

The government and rebel negotiators are meeting in Havana, Cuba, the location of the negotiation table, to speed up talks on the victims of the conflict, specifically those who were forcibly disappeared.

According to Blu Radio, the objective of the meeting is to be able to announce the agreement at the weekend.

The ultimate goal of the talks is to close a deal on how to locate those people who were kidnapped by the FARC but never returned.

More than 60,000 people in Colombia are feared dead after having disappeared during the 51-year-old conflict. The majority of these disappearances have been registered in departments with densely populated cities.

The imminent agreement on the victims of forced disappearance follows the transitional justice deal signed on 23 September which outlines the maximum punishments for guerrillas, paramilitaries, civilians and state officials found guilty of war crimes.

The Colombian State and the FARC have been locked in an internal armed conflict since 1964, leaving 260,000 Colombians dead and over six million displaced. The warring parties have been negotiating a peace deal in Havana, Cuba since November 2012.

The final peace deal will be signed by 23 March 2016, according to both sides.

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