By Delisa Morris
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America
BOGOTA, Colombia — During peace talks in Cuba, Colombia’s leftist FARC guerillas announced on Thursday that they would stop recruiting soldiers under 17 years of age. Before a recruit had to be 15 years old to join the FARC.
This is just one of the latest in a number of conciliatory steps as peace talks to end five decades of conflict with the government advance. The two-year-old negotiations are taking place in Cuba’s capital, Havana.
Though Colombia’s government welcomed the move, they do not believe that it went far enough. International human rights law sets the minimum age for participation in any kind of combat at 18.
“First, I don’t understand why 17 years of age? The established norm is 18, and I don’t understand why they’ve only gone halfway,” President Juan Manuel Santos said in a speech in Colombia’s Caqueta province to inaugurate and electrification project.
“Colombian’s would have received it with greater joy, if they said they would not only stop recruiting children under 18 but they would free those they have recruited. … We will continue to insist upon that step,” he said.
The FARC, or Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, has allegedly been forcibly recruiting minors or taking on underage volunteers in remote rural areas with few opportunities for a long time.
Defense Minister Juan Carlos Pinzon said on Thursday that half of the FARC members who have been demobilizing from the rebel force are under 18 or were when they joined. They usually perform minor chores, such as cooking or clearing jungle paths while training as combatants.
The FARC’s ranks have been roughly halved to around 8,000 by a U.S.-backed military offensive that has run for over a decade and forced the group, and its lesser counterpart, the National Liberation Army (ELN), deeper in their jungle escapes.
The FARC initiated a unilateral ceasefire shortly before Christmas as both sides to de-escalate. The FARC and the government are negotiating a five-point agenda for peace.
Partial agreement has been reached on three of the agenda items: land reform, ending the illegal drug trade and political participation for the guerrillas. The remaining issues are disarmament and demobilization, and reparations for victims of the war, which has killed around 220,000 people.
For more information, please see:
Fox News – Colombia’s main rebel group vows to stop recruiting youths under age 17 – 21 Feb. 2015
Reuters – Colombia’s FARC rebels raise minimum recruitment age to 17 – 12 Feb. 2015
BBC – Colombian FARC: No recruitment of soldiers under 17 – 12 Feb. 2015
Yahoo News – Colombia rebels vow to stop recruiting youths under 17 – 12 Feb. 2015
