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Dutch eye Colombia peace deal over guerrilla's future
by Staff Writers
The Hague (AFP) Sept 2, 2016


Majority of Colombians back peace deal with FARC: poll
Bogota (AFP) Sept 2, 2016 - A majority of Colombians look set to back the government's peace deal with the FARC rebels in a referendum next month, a key step in ending the 52-year conflict, a poll showed Friday.

The government of President Juan Manuel Santos has asked Colombians to vote on October 2 on this question: "Do you support the final accord to end the conflict and build a stable and lasting peace?"

The August 24 peace deal with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) will only be ratified if the "yes" camp passes the threshold of 4.4 million votes -- 13 percent of the electorate.

A strong majority -- 59.5 percent of the people surveyed -- said they would vote "yes" in support of the agreement, according to the Datexco poll conducted for El Tiempo newspaper and W Radio.

That was nearly double the number of those opposed to the deal, at 33.2 percent, while 4.7 percent said they were undecided and 2.6 percent had no opinion.

The Datexco telephone survey, conducted with 2,019 adults in various parts of the country on August 31 and September 1, has a margin of error of 2.13 percent.

It is not yet know when the peace deal will be formally signed.

Foreign Minister Maria Angela Holguin said this week that the United Nations had invited Santos and FARC leader Timoleon "Timochenko" Jimenez to sign it at the UN General Assembly in New York, which opens on September 20.

Once the deal is formally signed, the FARC will have 180 days to demobilize, disarm and relaunch itself as a political party. The UN has agreed to monitor the process.

The government and FARC began a landmark ceasefire Monday, the first time both sides have put down their weapons since the Marxist guerrilla group was launched in 1964.

The conflict, which has drawn in various left- and right-wing armed groups and gangs, has left 260,000 dead, 45,000 missing and 6.9 million uprooted from their homes.

The Netherlands said Friday it was closely watching the outcome of the Colombian peace deal and how it will affect a notorious Dutch woman guerrilla, wanted by the United States.

An international arrest warrant for Tanja Nijmeijer, who joined the Revolutionary Armed Force of Colombia (FARC) rebel group in 2002, also remains in place, Dutch officials confirmed.

"The Dutch foreign ministry is closely following the Colombian peace process," the ministry said in a statement to AFP.

Bogota has told Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders that a transitional justice system -- which still has to be set up in the country -- will determine whether FARC fighters will be tried for human rights violations or receive amnesty, it added.

A ceasefire between the Colombian government and the rebels came into effect on Monday ending a 52-year-long conflict.

Colombians will now vote in an October 2 referendum on whether to back the deal hammered out in nearly four years of talks in Cuba, where Nijmeijer became the FARC's public face.

Under the deal, a court called the Special Peace Jurisdiction will be set up tasked with prosecuting atrocities committed during the conflict in which some 260,000 people lost their lives.

This will "still take some time," the Dutch foreign ministry said.

"Therefore for the moment ... nothing can be said over what will happen to Tanja Nijmeijer," it said.

Nijmeijer, 38, was born in the eastern Dutch town of Denekamp and joined the FARC in 2002 -- reportedly shocked by the disparities between rich and poor -- after travelling to Colombia to teach English.

In an exclusive interview, she told AFP in 2012 she was "married" to the rebels' cause, but later admitted she sometimes got homesick and longed to make a brief visit back home.

The United States has charged her with terrorism and conspiracy to commit hostage taking in the kidnapping of three American contractors in 2003. The men were freed in a military operation along with former Colombian presidential candidate and French citizen Ingrid Betancourt.

"Tanja Nijmeijer is suspected of committing terrorist acts and war crimes. For now all international arrest warrants against her remain in place," the Dutch foreign ministry said.

The FARC number two, Ivan Marquez, told AFP in June that a French woman was also among their ranks. She had called herself by the pseudonym Natalie Mistral during an interview with Radio France Internationale.


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