In the wake of an alleged FARC attack that left five Colombian soldiers dead on Monday, the United Nations called on the rebel group to build peace from this point forward.
UN representative in Colombia Fabrizio Hochschild issued a statement on Monday saying that the FARC, the oldest rebel group in Colombia, must do more to stop violence then just the peace talks with the Colombian government, that the FARC must support the peace dialogues “with a change of attitude” according to Caracol Radio.
The UN official added that “the work can not be entrusted only to the people in Havana, people here in the territory has to work through behavior change, reducing conflict you have to start from and build peace.”
Hochschild’s plea to the FARC to stop their violence after the attack in the Taraza municipality of Antioquia killed five soldiers is only the latest in a string of violence attributed to the FARC.
MORE: 5 policemen killed in ambush in North-West Colombia
The FARC claimed responsibility for an attack on January 16 of this year that killed one person and injured an additional 56 when a motorcycle bomb detonated in the western city of Padera.
A deadly helicopter crash that took the lives of five Colombian soldiers on January 9 of this year was subsequently acknowledged by the FARC as a joint operation between them and the ELN, another leftist rebel group in Colombia.
MORE: FARC claims responsibility for bomb attack in west and helicopter crash in northern Colombia
The FARC has been reluctant to continue the monthlong ceasefire they started in December of 2013 because of repeated claims from Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos that he will not issue a ceasefire to the Colombian military until the peace agreements are signed in Cuba because he suspects the FARC would use a ceasefire to rearm their forces and reequip their jungle bases.
Source
Farc deben considerar que la paz se debe construir desde ya: ONU (Caracol Radio)
