“Kidnappings are a war crime,” warns the Colombian government’s chief negotiator with the ELN

Despite the fact that kidnapping is not explicitly prohibited in the bilateral ceasefire protocols with the guerrillas of National Liberation Army (ELN), which begins on August 3, the Government Colombian considers this crime a “war crime”.

“Kidnapping is an action that is classified as war crime and that has a very serious connotation”, explained in an interview with EFE the government’s chief negotiator, Otty Patino.

For the time being, in the ceasefire protocol the parties commit to “not to carry out the prohibited actions within the International human right (IHL)”and according to this agreement the “hostage taking” It is forbidden.

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THE CONTROVERSY

However, after the announcement of the bilateral ceasefire at the close of the third cycle of talks in Havanaon June 9, the chief negotiator of the THE N, “Pablo Beltran”admitted that this had been discussed but nothing had been agreed upon because it is one of their ways of financing and if at warfare “They take away a spoon, they have to give him another”.

“We don’t talk about kidnappings, We’re talking about withholdings. Withholdings, if they are not necessary, will not be made.”, Beltrán told several media outlets.

Patiño, for his part, alleged that the kidnapping “means political risksof a legal nature and moral hazards in the sense that people begin to not believe much in the desire for peace of the THE N”.

Hence, “even if it is not expressly written in the ceasefire, people imagine that it is in a process of weapons deactivation to do politics and then, of course, that also greatly undermines people’s confidence.”he added.

And he issued a warning to the guerrillas: “The responsibility of the ELN as a whole, in its high command, in its middle command and in its guerrilla base is very high on this issue”.

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MORE CONCRETION

Despite the controversy, the Government wants there to be more concretion before the start of the cease fire.

“Between now and July 6 we will finish making the protocols and the deployment of the entire mechanism (monitoring and verification) will be until August 3”, Patino explained.

Part of the delegations of both sides are still in Havana specifying precisely how the mechanism will work and what it will observe and verify, so that the signed protocols of Ceasefire they could be expanded.

The government negotiator regretted that the THE N Nor has it provided the exact areas where they are located, which is a way to prevent the Army make offensives wherever they are.

“For now, the THE N have been unwilling or unable to pin down specific areas of controlled mobilitybut I’m sure that’s going to define”, said Patiño, that is to say, that they aspire to have delimited areas where they know that the guerrillas are and can move freelybut where there is also control of the public force because the Government does not want demilitarized zones.

“caguan, zero”, said in reference to the southern part of the country that was demilitarized for the failed dialogues with the FARC between 1998 and 2002.

Another issue to be defined is what will happen in the areas where the THE N has combats with other groups, such as dissidents from the FARC or the gulf clan. “It’s a bit of a complex situation.Patiño acknowledged.

However, the Government trusts in the work of the Office of the High Commissioner for Peace with these other groups, within the framework of the “complete peace”, and so be “prevent” the crashes.

“There must be clarity and prevent these clashes from occurring, either by the will of both parties or because there are, let’s say, containment mechanisms that prevent it. I think that he THE N cannot stop the war against Military forces and at the same time keep their wars against another forcePatiño pointed out.

Source: Elcomercio

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I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.