While celebrating made advances on the second anniversary of a peace deal with Colombia’s former FARC rebels, the United Nations and the European Union said Saturday that many communities “still lack fundamental guarantees” that would allow peace.
The United Nations’ mission chief Jean Arnault and the European Union’s special representative, Eamon Gilmore, stressed in a statement that, despite significant advances, “two years after signing the Final Agreement with the FARC, the communities” in provinces like Cauca and Nariño and the Catatumbo region in the northeast of Colombia “still lack fundamental guarantees” from the state.
UN mission chief Jean Arnault and EU special representative Eamon Gilmore
Colombian President Ivan Duque, who has opposed the peace process, ignored the anniversary of the agreement that resulted in the demobilization and the disarmament of the FARC, and the coming into force of a transitional justice tribunal and a truth commission.
Many of the president’s political and economic backers are accused of war crimes and could be called to justice or lose face before the Truth Commission that formally begins its investigations on Monday.
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UN mission chief Jean Arnault and EU special representative Eamon Gilmore
Arnault and Gilmore reminded Duque and his allies that their criticism of the peace deal is not shared by the international community, which unanimously supports the peace process “as it has stated in many fora, including the United Nations Security Council,” the top officials said.
UN mission chief Jean Arnault and EU special representative Eamon Gilmore
The peace agreement with the FARC ended an armed conflict between the former guerrillas and the state, which has long been controlled by dynasty politicians like Duque and his predecessor, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Juan Manuel Santos.