- Title: Colombia's war ends
- Date: 27th September 2016
- Summary: ****WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** GENERAL VIEW OF CEREMONY BAN KI-MOON, SANTOS, CASTRO AND TIMOCHENKO STANDING AS A TRUMPET IS PLAYED SANTOS, CASTRO AND TIMOCHENKO STANDING AS A TRUMPET IS PLAYED CHILDREN WAVING WHITE CLOTHS BEHIND LEADERS TIMOCHENKO AND SANTOS GREETING AUDIENCE MEMBERS AT END OF CEREMONY
- Embargoed: 12th October 2016 02:06
- Keywords: Colombia FARC signing Cartagena President Juan Manuel Santos
- Location: CARTAGENA, COLOMBIA
- City: CARTAGENA, COLOMBIA
- Country: Colombia
- Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace
- Reuters ID: LVA00251CB29Z
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and Marxist rebel leader Timochenko used a pen made from a bullet on Monday (September 26) to sign an accord ending a half-century war that killed a quarter of a million people.
After four years of peace talks in Cuba, Santos, 65, and Timochenko - the nom de guerre for 57-year-old revolutionary Rodrigo Londono - shook hands on Colombian soil for the first time in front of hundreds of dignitaries.
Guests at the ceremony in the Caribbean coastal city of Cartagena were asked to wear white and included United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Cuban President Raul Castro and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.
The end of Latin America's longest-running war will turn the FARC guerrillas into a political party fighting at the ballot box instead of the battlefield they have occupied since 1964.
"Mr. Rodrigo Londono and members of the FARC, today when you begin your path of return to society, when you start your transition into a political movement without guns, following the rules of justice, truth and reparation as included in the agreement, as head of state of the homeland we all love, I welcome you to democracy," Santos said on a full white stage decorated with a dove and an olive branch.
"(Now we) change the bullets for votes, guns for ideas, it is the bravest and most intelligent decision that any subversive group can take, and now you have understood the calling of history," he added.
Accepting a pin in the shape of a dove from Santos, Londono took his momentous turn at the lectern, apologising to the nation on behalf of the guerrilla movement.
"In the name of the FARC-EP, I offer a sincere apology to all victims of the conflict for all the pain we may have caused in this war," said Londono.
"God bless Colombia, the war is over, we are beginning to construct peace, Mauricio Babilonia's love for the Meme can now live forever," said Londono in reference to Colombian writer Gabriel Garcia Marque's 'One Hundred Years of Solitude'.
Londono was clearly shocked when an aircraft roared overhead interrupting his speech, but went on to joke that it had come in peace and not to drop bombs this time.
One man waved a large Colombian flag that had an extra white stripe in homage to the peace deal, as the crowds shook white cloths.
The FARC, or Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, began as a peasant revolt, became a big player in the cocaine trade and at its strongest had 20,000 fighters. Now its some 7,000 fighters must hand over their weapons to the United Nations within 180 days.
Colombians will vote on Oct. 2 on whether to ratify the agreement, but polls show it should pass easily. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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