Rarely has a peace treaty been so widely celebrated in the recent past as the one announced this week between the government of Colombia and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia called FARC. The treaty is a milestone for peace in the Americas and the world, as it brings to an end a 52-year war between the Colombian state and the leftist FARC rebels. This war is the oldest in the Western Hemisphere and the last one held over from the Cold War.
The Colombian war that raged on for decades has been one of the deadliest in the world, and there were serious doubts at one stage whether it could be solved at all. More than 220,000 people have been killed, more than six million internally displaced and tens of thousands just disappeared without any trace. But, finally, the leftist rebels recognized that their future lies in peace than war. A bilateral ceasefire has gone into effect paving the way for lasting peace.
This was a war which had gone through ups and downs. At one stage, in the 1990s, the rebels were close to winning and the government army was in retreat. The rebels were flush with funds from Colombia’s booming drug trade and had an army of 18,000.
The then-president Andrés Pastrana was forced to begin peace talks in 1999 that dragged on with no significant progress and finally broke down in 2002. But gradually the military regained their control and by the mid 2000s, under a fierce military campaign ordered by the then president, Álvaro Uribe, it was the rebels who were on the run.
The biggest message which the Colombian peace treaty sends out is that no conflict is intractable. The world is replete with wars and conflicts which are waged for different reasons, mainly against states for independence, self-rule or change of governments or autonomy.
These armed insurgencies seldom succeed because they are fighting against the huge power of states which have advanced weaponry and armies whose numbers run into hundreds of thousands. The Colombian peace deal should serve as a lesson for such groups.
Experts say that if peace is possible in Colombia, it’s possible in Syria too. The complexity of the Syrian crisis lies in the presence of multiple factions with conflicting interests. But the situation was the same in Colombia. The FARC is just one of many armed groups that have existed in the country, along with the M-19, Quintín Lame, EPL etc.
It makes sense in moving slowly – making peace with one faction at a time.
Rarely has a peace treaty been so widely celebrated in the recent past as the one announced this week between the government of Colombia and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia called FARC. The treaty is a milestone for peace in the Americas and the world, as it brings to an end a 52-year war between the Colombian state and the leftist FARC rebels. This war is the oldest in the Western Hemisphere and the last one held over from the Cold War.
The Colombian war that raged on for decades has been one of the deadliest in the world, and there were serious doubts at one stage whether it could be solved at all. More than 220,000 people have been killed, more than six million internally displaced and tens of thousands just disappeared without any trace. But, finally, the leftist rebels recognized that their future lies in peace than war. A bilateral ceasefire has gone into effect paving the way for lasting peace.
This was a war which had gone through ups and downs. At one stage, in the 1990s, the rebels were close to winning and the government army was in retreat. The rebels were flush with funds from Colombia’s booming drug trade and had an army of 18,000.
The then-president Andrés Pastrana was forced to begin peace talks in 1999 that dragged on with no significant progress and finally broke down in 2002. But gradually the military regained their control and by the mid 2000s, under a fierce military campaign ordered by the then president, Álvaro Uribe, it was the rebels who were on the run.
The biggest message which the Colombian peace treaty sends out is that no conflict is intractable. The world is replete with wars and conflicts which are waged for different reasons, mainly against states for independence, self-rule or change of governments or autonomy.
These armed insurgencies seldom succeed because they are fighting against the huge power of states which have advanced weaponry and armies whose numbers run into hundreds of thousands. The Colombian peace deal should serve as a lesson for such groups.
Experts say that if peace is possible in Colombia, it’s possible in Syria too. The complexity of the Syrian crisis lies in the presence of multiple factions with conflicting interests. But the situation was the same in Colombia. The FARC is just one of many armed groups that have existed in the country, along with the M-19, Quintín Lame, EPL etc.
It makes sense in moving slowly – making peace with one faction at a time.
