Peace without impunity

CARTAGENA – Of the ongoing armed conflicts around the world, according to the International Crisis Group, this is the only one with a chance for a political solution.

Sorry, the Crisis Group is not referring to the peace initiative between our government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which collapsed after last year’s slaughter in Mamasapano, but to the peace process between the Colombian government and FARC, the communist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.

The Crisis Group assessment was mentioned by the architect of the peace deal, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, when he addressed us at the closing of the World Media Congress in this lovely port city last Tuesday afternoon.

While the circumstances are different, the Colombian peace initiative, supported by the United Nations and with Havana hosting the talks, offers lessons in our own situation. President-elect Rodrigo Duterte’s peace team may want to look at the Colombian deal, which despite misgivings by a segment of the population is generally regarded positively by the international community. Oslo, which is hosting exploratory meetings between Duterte’s team and exiled communist rebel leaders, mediated the Colombian peace deal. The Brits have also helped.

Incidentally, there’s another lesson that Duterte may want to take from the Colombian president. Santos is a former journalist whose family used to own the newspaper El Tiempo, and he reassured us that he would always uphold press freedom. The Spanish journalist who was kidnapped by a rebel group in April, he pointed out, was one of his harshest critics. Yet he instructed security forces, he said, not to stop until they secured her release and that of the two Colombian journalists who were also kidnapped while covering the story.

Because the Spaniard is his critic, Santos said he told his security officers, “we must defend her even more.”

Some local journalists told us that Colombians are polarized over their peace process, with critics saying the government should not be dealing with terrorists funded by narco trafficking.

The biggest concern, as Santos himself pointed out to us, is that he is hammering out a “peace with impunity” – something he strongly denies – with FARC atrocities to be forgiven and forgotten.

This is similar to concerns raised about MILF accountability for Mamasapano and other attacks, including the terrorist bombings of a Light Rail Transit coach and several other soft targets in Manila and Makati that left 22 people dead. The MILF carried out the near-simultaneous attacks together with Jemaah Islamiyah on Rizal Day, Dec. 30, 2000.

Santos is reassuring his compatriots that “this is a peace where there will be no impunity.” Doing otherwise, he said, would be planting the seeds of fresh violence – and Colombia has had enough of armed conflict. In 51 years – this is the longest running and last remaining armed conflict in the entire Western hemisphere – approximately 220,000 people have been killed, another 50,000 are desaparecidos while 7.6 million are recorded as victims of the conflict.

Santos is confident that Colombians “are tired of war.”

“Waging war is easier than making peace,” he said. “To lead a country at war is easy. To lead a country toward peace is harder.”

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Getting Colombians “to stop hating and reconcile” does not mean there will be no accountability, Santos told us. Victims of the conflict have rights, he said – to truth, reparation and justice.

This means setting up a Truth Commission, at least to find where victims’ bodies are buried. In 2012, Santos also prompted the legislature to pass a landmark law providing reparation to 600,000 victims of the conflict.

Giving justice to victims is more complicated, Santos admitted: “Where do you draw the line between justice and peace?” But “morally speaking,” he added, “it’s important to have peace without impunity.”

He vows that those responsible for crimes against humanity or war crimes would face trial, to ensure that the offenses will not happen again. A list of crimes that will not be covered by amnesty is being drawn up. The MILF may want to note that FARC leaders agreed to this transitional justice scheme last December. FARC, meanwhile, will be allowed political participation – still a contentious issue in Colombia.

Under the rural development aspect of the peace deal, farmers will also get 200,000 acres of land as restitution for property seized from them by rebel groups. Santos also insisted on a drug agenda in the peace deal, requiring FARC to stop protecting the illegal drug trade, and promoting alternative crops in areas planted to coca.

What if the rebels lie about eradicating hugely profitable coca plantations? 

“I am not naïve,” Santos told us. If the rebels refuse to cooperate in this plan, he said, at least they would no longer greet government forces with landmines. Colombia, he noted, is the second most mined country after Afghanistan.

As in the Philippines, the Colombian Congress must approve the peace deal. It will then be submitted to a national referendum.

The Colombians are way ahead of us in terms of disarmament, which was also one of the most challenging sticking points in their peace negotiations. Under the auspices of the UN, 58,000 paramilitary and guerrilla combatants have been demobilized so far and prepared for reintegration into civilian life.

And as in the Philippines, Santos is planning to amend their constitution to speed up the implementation of the peace deal.

“No peace process is perfect… It’s very clear to us, we know where we’re going,” Santos said. “I want to leave our children a country at peace… a normal country.”

The International Crisis Group, in its assessment last January of active armed conflicts around the world, noted, “2016 is unlikely to bring an improvement from the woes of 2015: it is war – not peace – that has momentum.” The Philippines merited special mention: the tension in the South China Sea was listed by the Crisis Group as one of the 10 conflicts that bear close watching this year.

But the group described the “considerable progress” in the Colombian peace process as a “hopeful example” in a world of conflict.