Bogotá, September 2 (EFE). – The Colombian government and the Central General Staff, the main dissident of the defunct FARC, agreed to set up a dialogue table at a date and place to be determined, but which will also mark the beginning of a renewed ceasefire, the two parties said announced this Saturday after a meeting in the Cauca department.
“The delegation of the National Government representing the Colombian State and the Central General Staff of the FARC-EP will install, in the preparatory phase, the dialogue table, with all its legal and political architecture and the presence of the international community as guarantors and companions,” they announced in a joint statement.
The agreement was reached in a rural area of the municipality of Suárez (Cauca), where the two delegations have been meeting since Thursday to define the route to this dialogue table, which does not yet have a date or a place.
The two parties will meet again on September 17 “to assess, monitor and adjust the confidence-building commitments made and to announce the date for the establishment of the peace dialogue table.”
This is the second announcement of this kind, since in April, after a meeting with farmers in the plains of Yarí (Caquetá), the dissidents had already set a date for the start of the dialogues, but it never materialized and the violent actions by the EMC, which included the murder of four indigenous children, complicated the path.
On the way to a ceasefire
This murder prompted the Colombian government to break the bilateral ceasefire that had existed since January in four departments, which ended in June without extension, and since then the EMC has increased its violent actions, particularly against public violence in the southwest of the country.
Now the two delegations are trying to find a way to agree again on a bilateral ceasefire and “protocols of respect for the population” that have monitoring mechanisms and can be signed when the table is installed, so that it is already in force from the start are . of the talks, the statement said.
“The bilateral ceasefire will aim to reduce confrontation and violence, apply international humanitarian law,” as well as measures that allow society to participate in the dialogues and minimize risks to civilians and members of both parties.
In the meantime, however, the parties “reserve their legitimate right to defense and will maintain their own security measures and necessary measures within the framework of respect for international humanitarian law,” the statement said.
They are also working on a preliminary agenda about what will be discussed at the dialogue table, including citizen participation.
On the other hand, the two parties agreed to develop eight review missions in different departments to “formulate recommendations on the application of international humanitarian law (IHL).”
This is the second dialogue table with an armed group that the government has set up after resuming talks with the National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrillas and will now do so with the EMC, a group of about 3,000 members based in divided into several fronts and under the command of “Iván Mordisco”, who did not sign the 2016 peace and remained in hiding. EFE
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