Colombian President Seeks EU Support for Peace Deal with FARC
Colombian President Jose Manuel Santos on Monday began a whistlestop tour of Europe to drum up support for a possible peace deal with FARC rebels to end five decades of insurgency.
His visit to six European Union nations, starting in Spain, follows two years of peace talks in Cuba between the Marxist-inspired rebel group and Santos's center-right government.
The two sides have reached tentative agreements on three of five major issues that could pave the way for a deal to end a bloody and lingering conflict.
These include cooperation on wiping out the illicit drug trade, agricultural reforms, and the FARC's possible future in politics.
Santos said they are now working on the two most sensitive issues: agreements on reparations for war victims and the disarmament and reintegration of the 8,000-strong FARC.
"The decisions which are going to be taken from the point of view of the victims are decisions which need great legitimacy, especially from the international community," he said during an interview with Spanish news radio Cadena Ser.
"This is why we are looking for political support so that any decision which Colombians take have international support," he added.
During the peace talks in Havana, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) on Thursday acknowledged for the first time that its actions had affected civilians.
FARC said it had never targeted civilians but admitted they had been harmed through the excessive use of force or mistakes.
"We explicitly recognize that our actions have affected civilians at different times and circumstances during the war," the FARC said in a statement.
Colombia's internal conflict has left 220,000 dead and displaced 5.3 million people, according to official figures.
The Colombian government has for a long time demanded the group, which claims to fight for the poor in Colombia, explicitly acknowledge their impact on civilians and has sought their commitment to provide reparations for the victims.
"It seems to me to be an important step and gesture. When the sides begin to assume their responsibility that means that the talks are serious," Santos told radio Cadena Ser.
Santos was re-elected for a second term in June, defeating a right-wing challenger who had threatened to end the talks had he been elected.
"If there exists a single opportunity to stop this bloodshed, we have to take it," Santos said.
The Colombian president is also using his tour to lobby for the creation of a European fund for the post-conflict period should his government clinch a historic deal with the rebels.
Santos said it could be used to finance agricultural projects that would replace cocaine cultivation.
"This would also have a positive effect to curb deforestation of tropical forests in Colombia," he said.
Santos said Spain's conservative Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy had offered support for the peace talks and the creation of the fund during their talks in Madrid.
"In both cases Rajoy said Spain would accompany us, he gave us some indications regarding how he thinks this fund could be created as soon as possible," he told journalists after meeting with Rajoy.
"Spain understands that the peace process in Colombia will not only benefit Colombians, it will also have repercussions in the region and the entire world," he added.
Spain's finance ministry said in a statement it was backed the creation of the fund to "finance concrete projects".
Santos heads to Belgium on Tuesday an will told talks with German chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin on Wednesday.
He will visit Portugal on Thursday and will wrap up his European tour on Friday with stops in Paris and London.
Source: Agence France Presse
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