Leaders | Colombia and the FARC

Ending a half-century of war

After 220,000 deaths, voters should endorse the new Colombian peace accord

A DECADE or so has passed since a ferocious war between the state and the FARC, an army of leftist narco-guerrillas, dominated life in Colombia. An offensive launched by government forces in 2002 pushed the FARC into remote mountain and jungle areas. A unilateral ceasefire declared by the FARC last year virtually ended hostilities. Nowadays the war’s terror no longer troubles city-dwelling Colombians.

Nevertheless, the final peace accord announced on August 24th, after four years of talks in Havana, is historic. It ends a war that began 52 years ago and has killed perhaps 220,000 people and displaced 7m more. Under the agreement, the FARC is to turn itself into a normal political party. After its fighters finally remove their uniforms, vestigial insurgencies will continue in South America. A drug-running rump of the Shining Path fights feebly on in Peru and the ELN remains more than a nuisance in Colombia. But the FARC’s recognition of Colombia’s constitutional order represents the death of a strain of Stalinist violence that has plagued Latin America for decades. When Colombia’s citizens vote on the settlement on October 2nd it deserves their endorsement.

The deal arrived at by Colombia’s president, Juan Manuel Santos, and the FARC’s leader, Rodrigo Londoño-Echeverry, known as “Timochenko”, provides for the disarmament of the FARC’s remaining 6,800 troops and 8,500 militia and their concentration in 23 “normalisation zones”. That process is to be overseen by the UN. The guerrillas will eradicate coca fields and clear landmines, which have killed 11,000 people since 1990. The government is to spend billions of dollars on development in areas that the FARC once controlled.

It is not a perfect agreement. The most contentious part is the provisions for bringing to justice those who committed horrific crimes against non-combatant Colombians. The FARC, the Colombian army and right-wing paramilitary groups all murdered civilians. The FARC’s crimes extended to extortion, kidnapping and pressing children into military service. Perpetrators of such crimes belong in prison. Under the peace accord, though, they will serve no jail time if they confess. Instead, guerrillas and soldiers will appear before a special tribunal; if convicted their liberty will be “restricted” and they will perform community service for up to eight years.

A somewhat just peace

Many Colombians understandably find such leniency hard to stomach. Their outrage has been seized upon by Álvaro Uribe, Mr Santos’s predecessor. The unremitting offensive against the FARC during his time in office made peace possible (and led to some of the atrocities committed by pro-government forces). Now a senator, Mr Uribe denounces the peace agreement as a surrender to “Castro-chavismo” (which it is not) and is leading a campaign against it. Opinion polls suggest that the vote in the plebiscite will be close (see article).

Mr Uribe’s fight is wrongheaded. Though flawed, the “transitional justice” that the peace accord will bring about will be more rigorous than that achieved in other countries, such as South Africa and El Salvador, which have ended bitter conflicts. The peacemakers asked the pope and the UN secretary-general to help pick the committee that will appoint judges to the tribunal. That will bolster its credibility.

A vote to reject the agreement would be a tragedy. The FARC cannot return to its former deadly potency, but even as late as 2013 some 2,000 armed clashes took place. Rural regions that bore the brunt of the war are desperate for peace. Colombians have a chance to end one of the world’s longest-running conflicts. They should seize it.

This article appeared in the Leaders section of the print edition under the headline "Ending a half-century of war"

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