Colombia halts bombing FARC rebels: President
Colombia’s president has ordered the country’s military to stop bombing raids against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) for a month.
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos issued the directive on Tuesday, as part of a gesture alongside peace talks that have been held in Cuba since two years ago.
“In order to start the de-escalation of the conflict I have decided to order the minister of defense and armed forces commanders to stop bombing raids on FARC camps for a month,” Santos said in a televised address.
This is while the FARC rebel group said in January that its unilateral ceasefire was being threatened by continuing attacks by the government’s armed forces.
On December 20, the FARC launched an indefinite, unilateral ceasefire in an effort to boost the peace talks in the Cuban capital of Havana which began in November 2012.
The peace talks have so far produced only partial accords on several issues but have yet to yield a final deal at ending a half-century-old conflict between the rebels and the US-backed government.
The two sides have agreed on a few main issues, namely land reform, political participation and drug trafficking.
Bogota estimates that some 600,000 people have been killed and more than 4.5 million displaced due to the fighting.
The rebel organization is thought to have around 8,000 fighters operating across a large swathe of the eastern jungles of the Andean nation.
GMA/MHB/AS
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