UN envoy for Colombia: Peace depends on stopping killings

By EDITH M. LEDERER
an hour ago

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. envoy for Colombia warned Monday that peace won’t be achieved if former combatants who laid down their weapons and social leaders continue to be killed.

Carlos Ruiz Massieu said Sunday’s announcement by Colombian authorities that they thwarted a planned attempt to kill Rodrigo Londono, who had been the top military commander of the country’s largest rebel group and now heads its legal political party, “underscored the risks” facing former rebels “and the peace process itself.”

He told the U.N. Security Council it also underscores “how crucially important it is to guarantee ... security” of former rebels from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia or FARC.

Ruiz Massieu stressed that “perpetrators of attacks against social leaders and former combatants must be brought swiftly to justice, including both material and intellectual authors.” He also stressed that “more effective measures are still imperative to protect these individuals, and their communities.”

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