Susan GatelyAll the fighting factions in Colombia must be involved in the peace process which cannot just be an agreement among leaders, but must come from the people too, according to two Comboni missionaries in Ireland.
Fr Rubén Padilla Rocha based in the Dublin Comboni Missionary office which supports some projects in Colombia, said he had many questions about the peace accord reached last week and who would ultimately benefit. “At the basis of Colombian society there is huge conflict,” he told The Irish Catholic, “That cannot be resolved overnight.”
The historic peace accords between the government of Colombia and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, came after 52 years of civil war and 220,000 deaths. The accords promise FARC disarmament, the end of their involvement in the drug trade and comprehensive agrarian reform. But Fr Rocha says other guerrilla factions must also be invited to the ‘peace table’.
“Between five and six million people have been displaced in Colombia because of the war,” he said. “They were thrown off their lands by drug dealers and guerrilla factions. When they can return to their own homes, then there will be peace,” he said.
Comboni brother, Kakule Silusawa, who worked in Bogota for three years until 2014, said peace “had to come from the base”. “A lot of people died, a lot disappeared. People are wounded and many want revenge,” he told The Irish Catholic.
Bro. Silusawa, said his hope lay with the “people of good will”. “It gives you hope when you see young people of peace, struggling to improve the lives of people in their local communities.”
“We need to pray a lot for Colombia,” he added.
The Colombia peace accord was signed in Havana on August 24 followed by a ceasefire days later.