Colombia's leftist FARC rebels have handed over all registered individual arms in line with last year's peace deal, the UN says. The deal ends a more than 50-year-long conflict in which hundreds of thousands died.
Image: Reuters/J. Vizcaino
Advertisement
One of Latin America's longest-lived and most powerful rebel groups, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), has turned in all its previously registered weapons under a milestone peace deal signed last year, the United Nations has confirmed.
UN monitors said on Monday they had "the entirety of the FARC's registered individual arms stored away," apart from some that were exempted for transitional security at demobilization camps until August 1.
Colombian FARC rebels begin disarming process
00:29
This browser does not support the video element.
The group's 6,800 fighters handed in the 7,132 weapons in three phases this month in a disarmament process supervised by the UN. Monitors are, however, still collecting and destroying other weapons and munitions stored in remote caches that FARC have identified to the UN.
An official ceremony to mark the completion of disarmament is scheduled for 1500 UTC Tuesday in a camp near the central town of Mesetas in the department of Meta.
The ceremony is to be attended by Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, who received last year's Nobel Peace prize for his efforts to reach a peace deal, along with FARC leader Rodrigo Londono, aka Timochenko, and UN representatives.
Monitors collected weapons in 26 "peace zones"Image: picture alliance/dpa/A. Piñeros
Too lenient?
FARC will now transform into a political party under the landmark deal, which also includes rural reforms, cooperation on combating drug trafficking and the creation of a system of transitional justice.
Critics of the deal, who include former conservative President Alvaro Uribe, have called it too lenient on FARC members, some of whom will be amnestied or given reduced sentences for crimes committed during the conflict.
But Londono called his group's disarmament "a historic moment for Colombia," describing it on Twitter as "an act of will, courage and hope."
Londono has hailed the agreement as "historic"Image: Getty Images/AFP/L. Acosta
Colombia's internal conflict broke out in 1964 over land rights issues and pitted FARC and other left-wing rebels against the military, police and right-wing paramilitary groups. It left 260,000 people confirmed dead, more than 60,000 missing and 7 million displaced.
President Santos says he now wants to achieve "complete peace" in the country by obtaining a deal with the last major rebel group still active in Colombia, the leftist National Liberation Army (ELN).
Although the ELN started talks with the government in February, it and other fringe groups have been blamed for ongoing violence over the past months.
tj/msh (AFP, dpa)
Latin America's longest armed conflict comes to an end
The Colombian government has reached a historic truce with FARC, ending over half a century of violence with the leftist group. Latin America's longest conflict claimed at least 220,000 lives.
Image: Reuters/A. Meneghini
How the insurgency started
In 1948, the assassination of populist leader Jorge Eliecer Gaitan sparked political chaos in Colombia known as "the violence." Tens of thousands died and peasant groups joined with communists to arm themselves. Later in 1964, a military attack on the insurgency's main encampment led to the creation of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia or FARC.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo
What the rebels wanted
FARC's political ideology has never been well defined. Initially, it sought to weaken the oligarchy's grip on power. The rebels also wanted land reforms in a country where more than 5 million people have been forcibly displaced, mostly by far-right militias. However, the group lost popularity as it turned to kidnapping and illegal gold mining for funds.
Image: Reuters
How the US got involved
To help the Colombian security forces fight against the insurgency and to counter drug-trafficking, the US began sending billions of dollars under Plan Colombia. The US State Department classifies the group as a terrorist organization and its leaders face US indictments.
Image: Reuters/J. Vizcaino
The human cost of the conflict
Latin America's longest-running armed conflict is responsible for the death an estimated 220,000 people, while millions of Colombians have been displaced within their country. According to Bogota’s estimates, there are 7.6 million direct and indirect victims of the conflict. The country has more landmine victims than any country except for Afghanistan.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/C. Escobar Mora
Peace accord after decades of failed attempts
Peace talks between FARC and the government collapsed in the mid 1980s after at least 3,000 allies of FARC's political wing Patriotic Union Party were killed at the hands of right-wing paramilitaries. Efforts fell short again in 2002 after the rebels hijacked an airliner to kidnap a senator. The latest round of talks started in 2012 in Havana and culminated on August 24, 2016 with a deal.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/E. Abramovich
50 years of conflict
"We have reached a final, integral and definitive agreement" to end the conflict and build a stable, lasting peace, the government of President Juan Manuel Santos and the left-wing Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia said in a joint statement. In June, the negotiators had already announced a cease-fire agreement and a blueprint for how the estimated 7,000 to 8,000 fighters will demobilize.
