- Title: Colombia troops, ex-guerillas may protect rebels in peace - minister
- Date: 18th May 2016
- Summary: BOGOTA, COLOMBIA (MAY 18, 2016) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) DEFENCE MINISTER, LUIS CARLOS VILLEGAS, SAYING: "I think it will take us a generation to install total peace throughout the country, if we do things well from the start. Last year, we had 12,600 homicides. If the FARC and ELN (deaths) disappeared from that figure, we would have 12,000. We have other problems that are part of our culture, an intolerance among citizens which we have to fight against, especially with education, and prevention over repression." BOGOTA, COLOMBIA (RECENT) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF PEOPLE WALKING IN THE STREETS
- Embargoed: 3rd June 2016 00:03
- Keywords: Colombia FARC Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia peace talks Cuba
- Location: BOGOTA AND SAN VICENTE DEL CAGUAN, COLOMBIA; HAVANA, CUBA
- City: BOGOTA AND SAN VICENTE DEL CAGUAN, COLOMBIA; HAVANA, CUBA
- Country: Colombia
- Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace
- Reuters ID: LVA0054IC7I9V
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: EDIT CONTAINS MATERIAL THAT WAS ORIGINALLY 4:3
Colombia's FARC rebel leaders will likely be protected by their own demobilised security units in coordination with the armed forces once peace is signed and the Marxist group enters politics, the defence minister said on Wednesday (May 18).
The government and Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) are expected to agree to end five decades of conflict this year, and ink an accord that would allow the group to form a political party and enter civil society.
Colombian Defence Minister Luis Carlos Villegas said in an interview that the group's security was still being discussed at talks in Havana.
"I think that the security schemes must at least be agreed on for the rest of this political mandate, and I agree with you, we cannot permit that Colombian politics continues to be carried out with weapons, either those belonging to the FARC or those used against them. Proper security units no, but in the case like the M-19, there'll be initial participation (of reintegrated rebels); that's obvious," said Villegas.
"Like with the M-19, there'll be initial participation (of reintegrated rebels); that's obvious," he added.
The demobilised leftist rebel group M-19 was permitted to use its own members as security staff after losing a presidential candidate to assassins. Current negotiations are focusing on how FARC members could avoid a similar fate.
The FARC-inspired Patriotic Union was further decimated in the 1980s when right-wing paramilitary death squads killed 5,000 of its members and supporters, including two presidential candidates.
While Colombia has had patchy success in its fight against illegal drugs - a $10 billion U.S. campaign did little to dent coca cultivation - the government says it will turn all its military resources against the gangs, whose links with Mexican cartels have made them more sophisticated.
Air raids and U.S. intelligence will be used against their 3,000-strong operations, Villegas said.
He stressed, however, that the main part of peace keeping would be tasked to national forces.
"Security will be in the hands of Colombia's public forces, because no one can imagine international forces of 10 or 15,000 members looking after the FARC, coming from Norway, Denmark. No, they are our policemen and soldiers retrained with a new doctrine, the protocols to be there," said Villegas.
An end to the war between rebels and the government, which has killed more than 220,000 people and displaced millions, may allow the FARC alternatives to jail, a perk not available to crime gangs.
Bringing total peace to Colombia would be a drawn-out process of at least 20 years that would require changes in education and culture, Villegas said.
"I think it will take us a generation to install total peace throughout the country, if we do things well from the start. Last year we had 12,600 homicides. If the FARC and ELN (deaths) disappeared from that figure, we would have 12,000. We have other problems that are part of our culture, an intolerance among citizens which we have to fight against, especially with education, and prevention over repression," Villegas said. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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