Peace process alone will not solve humanitarian crisis in northwest Colombia: UN
Peace process alone will not solve humanitarian crisis in northwest Colombia: UN
Jul 11, 2014 posted by Gabrielle Mentjox
The United Nations warned President Juan Manuel Santos Thursday that Colombia’s ongoing peace process with the FARC rebel group, the country’s largest, will not be sufficient to adress the deepening humanitarian crisis in the northwest of the country, reported local media
UN Human Rights High Commissioner Todd Howland deplored the ongoing violence in the northwestern state of Choco that has led to the “systematic” violation of residents’ human rights, reported Caracol Radio. “We (the UN) want to alert the Colombian and international community because, although we are undergoing a peace process, Choco is suffering new breakdowns due to various illegal groups increasingly taking control of the territory,” said Howland.
Howland insisted that the ongoing peace negotiations between the Colombian government and the country’s largest rebel group, the FARC, in Havana, Cuba, will not have any effect on the situation in Choco, where displacement rates remain high as indigenous and Afro-descendent communities struggle to deal with the targeted violence directed against them.
“There is so much illegal activity in Choco that the problem is not going to be resolved with the demobilization of the FARC or the ELN (rebel groups), but rather the government must prepare to make changes to the economic activities of the zone,” said Howland, reported Caracol Radio.
More:
http://colombiareports.co/peace-process-alone-wont-solve-humanitarian-crisis-northwest-colombia-un/
