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Colombia: Farc must be taken off US terror list for peace progress

COLOMBIA’S Farc guerillas must be removed from lists of terrorist organisations to pave the way for peace, US and EU leaders were told on Thursday.

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) urged the European Union to remove it from its designated terrorist list as Cuban-mediated peace talks in Havana reached an advanced stage.

The rebels, who have fought a 50-year war against the army and paramilitary death squads, are ready to lay down their arms and participate in elections as they did in 1984.

But the then government soon reneged, murdering thousands of members of the communist-led Patriotic Union (UP), including its president Jaime Pardo.

“The most fair and consistent thing is to erase the Farc from the list of terrorist organisations with the same swiftness with which we were included,” Farc chief peace negotiator Ivan Marquez told the European Parliament committee on foreign affairs via video conference on Thursday.

“Taking the Farc off the terrorist list removes obstacles to normalisation and facilitates the reincorporation process for former rebel fighters.”

Earlier this week the UN approved a request for a monitoring mission for the peace process from both sides, while the government finally honoured its commitment to free some 30 Farc prisoners.

Speaking ahead of a visit to the White House next Thursday, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos asked the US to follow suit, along with cancelling arrest warrants for alleged drug trafficking against Farc leaders.

The US has for decades supported Colombia’s brutal war against peasants and workers under the cover of its so-called “War on Drugs.”

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