Adiós Guerra (A Special Weekly Round-Up)

Anna Vogt is the regional advocacy and context analyst. This article was originally posted on her personal blog.  

My walk to work this morning was normal. I passed the same dog walkers and shoeshine man as any other day. When I arrived, however, the office was giddy with excitement. Today was the day, long advocated and worked towards: a bilateral ceasefire, ending the active armed conflict between the government and the FARC, after over fifty years of war.

With hundreds of other Colombians, balloons, flags and music, we danced as we watched Santos and Timochenko sign the agreement together on a big screen on the street. I almost cried several times, not just because of the importance of the moment, but because of who I was with. For the last three years I have been at Justapaz, my colleagues have eaten, slept and breathed peace. Every meeting, statement and event has been aimed towards a silencing of arms. When I moved to Bogota, I had no idea that almost exactly three years later, we would be hugging people on the street, in part because of work that takes place from my office. I am honoured and proud to be included in this celebration of crazy hope.

Later on in the office, we shared our feelings about the day in a small continuation of celebration. Jenny talked about meetings for Pan y Paz fifteen years ago, where together with the Mennonite Church, the group decided that every September 21, the International Day of Non-Violence and Ceasefire, people from churches around the country would gather to pass out bread and demand peace with justice. At the time, the idea that two warring parties would sit down and dialogue with each other seemed impossible. Jenny cried as she shared about the hope of today: it is possible to believe in non-violence even when no one else does.

My walk home this evening was normal. I passed the same dogs that I see every evening and the same hippies slack-lining between trees. I hugged my purse close to myself, just in case. Despite the cease-fire, everything feels the same as it did this morning. Yet I know that this is a chance for real change that will hopefully be lived out in ordinary lives.

As Angelica expressed in the office, she is looking forward to never documenting another human rights violation committed by the FARC. Juan, our lawyer, talked about growing up in the 1990s and being able to recite from memory the noon news: first some dead people because of the armed conflict, then some dead people because of common crime, then sports, then nonsense. He is hopeful to see different news and work within a legal system that promotes peace, not war.

There is much work left to be done, including the signing of the final peace accords and the creation of structures of social justice and trust. As we may our way back to the office,wearing DiPaz t-shirts proclaiming the need for truth, reparations and justice, a woman selling chips on the street scoffed at us. What hope of peace is there if Santos is freely giving the country away to the FARC?  This sentiment is shared by many and freely propelled by the extreme right. There are other active armed groups in Colombia and insecurity will continue.

Today, however, is a day for celebration and remembrance.  The promise of fewer young people killing other young people in the jungle fills us with joy. Tomorrow will bring new challenges, meetings and emails as my Colombian colleagues figure out how they work and advocate within this new phase. Today, we remember that change is possible and say yes to peace, for today and for tomorrow.  I think of the people and communities I have come to love across the country and hope and pray that peace will create both great and small changes as they continue to live their lives in a different Colombia.

In the spirit of the weekly round-up, here are some links for more information:

Colombia’s peace deals in depth: End of Conflict

The government will create 23 undisclosed transitory areas for demobilization ZVTN and eight camps throughout Colombia. These areas are about as big as the existing borders of the “vereda” or township where the guerrillas will come together. Within the veredas, the legal carrying of firearms will temporarily be suspended for the maximum of six months the guerrillas’ legal situation should be resolved and the ZVTN be lifted. During the six-month period, a safety cordon of approximately one kilometer will be created around these ZVTN to prevent any type of armed action possibly committed against demobilized guerrillas or the local population. Within this safety cordon, public and ex-guerrilla security will be overseen by the international observers and the FARC. No members of the security forces or the FARC will be allowed inside the safety cordon. One day after the signing of a peace agreement, the government will give out concrete instructions to the military that will allow the mass displacement of FARC members to the ZVTN. Five days after the peace deal, the commanders of the so-called “Tactical Units” of the FARC will move to these designated areas and begin the coordination of the mass demobilization of troops with the local civilian authorities.

3 things you should know about the new Colombia peace agreement with its rebels

Finally, the government itself will have to move into territories where the rule of law is weak and insecurity is high. Some of these regions have been essentially governed by the FARC. In others, both the FARC and the paramilitaries captured institutions to steer benefits their way.  Paramilitaries even managed to elect a substantial proportion of the congress.  State-building is difficult and messy, and the government will have to ramp up its presence in areas it abandoned in the past. As with demobilization and reparations, the Colombian government has already started its effort, with mixed results. The tasks should be easier without the FARC to contend with. Despite the challenges, this is the most promising step the parties have arrived at since the war began. Let’s hope that the next few months lead to an enduring agreement.

Rural Colombians hope ‘pretty promises’ can bring peace back to paradise

In a rebel outpost in the mountains of the Magdalena Medio region, commander Alberto Camacho is preparing his troops to arm themselves with political arguments rather than AK-47s, even though he admits mixed emotions at doing so himself. “It’s going to be really hard,” says Camacho, commander of the Farc’s Magdalena Medio Block, who joined the rebel group 37 years ago when he was just 12 years old. “It implies a whole different life for us, a different regime,” he says. “We have been living in boots for so long, but this will be a new stage for us.” Already the routine for guerrillas has changed. “Before we would get up in the morning and head to the trenches,” says Camacho. “Today we get up and go to meetings, study the peace accords,” he says. Camacho says the guerrillas’ commitment to ending the war has been made evident with the unilateral ceasefire the Farc declared in July 2015. Since then the level of violence in the country has dropped to unprecedented lows, with just 10 offensive actions by the Farc in the past 11 months, in which one civilian and three soldiers have been killed, according to the Bogotá-based Conflict Analysis Resource Centre….But the accord announced on Thursday will require the guerrillas to do more than leave aside their weapons. Ending all hostilities includes putting a stop to widespread extortion demanded by the Farc of everyone from large business and mining concerns to bus drivers and small shop owners.

Colombia and Farc rebels sign historic ceasefire deal to end 50-year conflict