This handout picture shows Colombia's Army Commander General Alberto Mejia greeting Army Lieutenant Cristian Moscoso Rivera, upon his release by the FARC guerrillas, on July 19, 2015.(AFP Photo/Ministerio De Defensa/Mauricio Orjuela)
Bogota:
Colombia's FARC guerrillas freed a captive soldier Sunday in an apparent good will gesture hours before they start observing a unilateral ceasefire.
Colombians who have endured a half-century of bloodshed that has claimed 220,000 lives hope the truce will invigorate a slow-moving peace process and lead to a bilateral ceasefire with the government and eventually the end of the war.
It is the last guerrilla conflict in Latin America, which has seen many of them. More than six million people have been forced from their homes.
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia announced the month-long truce on July 8 and said it would begin at midnight Sunday.
With hours to go before the ceasefire, the FARC issued a statement saying its forces should refrain from operations of an offensive nature against government forces and public or private infrastructure.
But in a sign of how fragile the peace process is, the statement said no FARC unit "is obliged to let itself be hit by enemy forces, and will have every right to exercise legitimate defense if attacked."
The FARC also announced the release of a soldier captured nearly two weeks ago during fighting in the south of the country. The government said he is in good physical condition.
Fitful peace talks have been taking place since 2012 in Havana, but fighting has continued and even intensified this year. And Colombians have gradually grown disillusioned with the peace process.
President Juan Manuel Santos has said he will negotiate for four more months and then decide whether to continue.
Last chance for peace?
This time could the rebels' last chance, according to the president.
If they do not live up to their truce, and there is no progress on the issue of what kind of punishment would be applied to the rebels under a peace accord, the peace process will fall apart for good, Santos has said.
The government has pledged to scale back military operations during the rebel truce and work toward a bilateral ceasefire, which would have to be overseen by the United Nations.
The most critical issue is that under a peace accord, the rebels must accept punishment that will "deny them freedom." Without this, there can be no deal, Santos told El Tiempo newspaper.
The government will be very flexible, he said.
One possibility is that only senior FARC commanders go to prison, and the rest of the rebel army - totaling about 8,000 fighters - would be punished with detention on special rural estates or house arrest.
Santos said work will start this week on ways to protect rebels who lay down their arms.
This is important, as the government wants to avert a repeat of what happened in the 1980s and 1990s, when some 3,000 members of a different rebel group that disarmed were killed by rightwing paramilitaries.
FARC members who lay down weapons can get involved in the country's political system. But the key is that: no weapons.
"If they do not turn them in, this exercise will have been pointless. It would not be acceptable for me, nor for the people of Colombia, nor for the world at large," Santos said.
Colombians who have endured a half-century of bloodshed that has claimed 220,000 lives hope the truce will invigorate a slow-moving peace process and lead to a bilateral ceasefire with the government and eventually the end of the war.
It is the last guerrilla conflict in Latin America, which has seen many of them. More than six million people have been forced from their homes.
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia announced the month-long truce on July 8 and said it would begin at midnight Sunday.
With hours to go before the ceasefire, the FARC issued a statement saying its forces should refrain from operations of an offensive nature against government forces and public or private infrastructure.
But in a sign of how fragile the peace process is, the statement said no FARC unit "is obliged to let itself be hit by enemy forces, and will have every right to exercise legitimate defense if attacked."
The FARC also announced the release of a soldier captured nearly two weeks ago during fighting in the south of the country. The government said he is in good physical condition.
Fitful peace talks have been taking place since 2012 in Havana, but fighting has continued and even intensified this year. And Colombians have gradually grown disillusioned with the peace process.
President Juan Manuel Santos has said he will negotiate for four more months and then decide whether to continue.
Last chance for peace?
This time could the rebels' last chance, according to the president.
If they do not live up to their truce, and there is no progress on the issue of what kind of punishment would be applied to the rebels under a peace accord, the peace process will fall apart for good, Santos has said.
The government has pledged to scale back military operations during the rebel truce and work toward a bilateral ceasefire, which would have to be overseen by the United Nations.
The most critical issue is that under a peace accord, the rebels must accept punishment that will "deny them freedom." Without this, there can be no deal, Santos told El Tiempo newspaper.
The government will be very flexible, he said.
One possibility is that only senior FARC commanders go to prison, and the rest of the rebel army - totaling about 8,000 fighters - would be punished with detention on special rural estates or house arrest.
Santos said work will start this week on ways to protect rebels who lay down their arms.
This is important, as the government wants to avert a repeat of what happened in the 1980s and 1990s, when some 3,000 members of a different rebel group that disarmed were killed by rightwing paramilitaries.
FARC members who lay down weapons can get involved in the country's political system. But the key is that: no weapons.
"If they do not turn them in, this exercise will have been pointless. It would not be acceptable for me, nor for the people of Colombia, nor for the world at large," Santos said.
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