Colombia court paves way for FARC talks
Iran Press TV
Thu Aug 29, 2013 8:30PM GMT
Officials at Colombia’s high court have said that they declared a controversial law constitutional, paving the way for peace talks between the government and rebels.
On Wednesday, the Constitutional Court's president announced that the new amendment to the constitution, named the Legal Framework for Peace, passed with a 7-to-2 decision.
“The Constitutional Court considered that to reach stable and lasting peace, it is legitimate to adopt transitional justice measures like the mechanisms of selection and ranking [of crimes],” said the court's top judge, Jorge Ivan Palacio.
The law came after President Juan Manuel Santos declared openness for peace negotiations with the leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Rodrigo Londono.
“For this process to be successful depends in large part on the justice system and that we find the middle point between justice and peace that enables us to put a definitive end to this conflict which has been bleeding us for 50 years,” Santos said.
Critics, however, said the amendment could allow lawmakers to select which cases of genocide, crimes against humanity and other war crimes could be investigated and punished, leading to selective impunity.
The new law was approved in Congress last year and laid the foundation for peace talks with Latin America's biggest rebel group.
Talks between the FARC rebels and the Colombian government kicked off in Cuban capital Havana in November 2012. The talks recess and resume every few weeks as clashes between the two sides continue.
FARC is Latin America's oldest insurgent group and has been fighting the government since 1964.
Bogota estimates that 600,000 people have been killed, and some three million others have been internally displaced by 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/HN
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