[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 12]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 16818-16819]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    OPINION PIECE BY BERNARD ARONSON

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. ELIOT L. ENGEL

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                       Friday, December 16, 2016

  Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to include in the Record an 
excellent opinion piece by Bernard Aronson, the United States Special 
Envoy to the Colombian Peace Process, which was published in the New 
York Times on December 14, 2016. Mr. Aronson has played a crucial role 
in supporting Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos in bringing an end 
to his country's 52 year war with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of 
Colombia (FARC). I very much appreciate Mr. Aronson's service to our 
country.
  Moving forward, I believe we must support Colombia in peace just as 
we have supported the country through years of war. I look forward to 
working with my colleagues in the next Congress in doing just that.

                 Colombia Needs Help to Make Peace Last

                  (By Bernard Aronson, Dec. 13, 2016)

       Oslo.--On Nov. 29, a 6-year-old Colombian girl, Yisely 
     Isarama, was killed by a land mine in Choco Province. The 
     same day, the

[[Page 16819]]

     Colombian Senate voted 75 to 0 to ratify peace accords to end 
     the 52-year war between the government and the Revolutionary 
     Armed Forces of Colombia, known as the FARC.
       In microcosm, the two events encapsulate Colombia's past 
     and its potential future.
       In his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech here on 
     Saturday, the president of Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos, the 
     architect of the peace settlement, called the war ``a half-
     century nightmare.'' It claimed 220,000 Colombian lives, most 
     of them civilians', and drove six million from their homes. 
     In United States population terms, that would translate into 
     1.3 million dead and 36 million displaced Americans. 
     Colombians year after year are killed or injured by land 
     mines at rates higher than in any country except Afghanistan.
       Under the agreement, FARC combatants will disarm and 
     demobilize over 180 days under United Nations supervision. 
     For most Colombians, it will be their first day living in a 
     nation at peace. But the peace settlement, hammered out in 
     Havana after four and a half years of negotiations, and 
     revised following the loss of a plebiscite, aims to do far 
     more than silence the guns, as welcome as the end of the 
     conflict is.
       The peace accord sets out to bridge the great historic 
     divide between what President Santos calls ``the two 
     Colombias'': the Colombia of developed, modern urban centers 
     and the Colombia of the vast, impoverished interior, where 
     historically there has been little or no government presence 
     and, as a result, little security, justice, rule of law or 
     access to roads, health care and education. That is where the 
     war was fought.
       To close this gap, the government has committed itself to a 
     far-reaching program of rural development for the largely 
     peasant population that includes provision of land, titles, 
     credit, roads, and crop substitution programs. To allow 
     arable land to be cultivated safely, land mines must be 
     removed.
       The Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the 
     University of Notre Dame, which is monitoring the enforcement 
     of the agreement, reports that half of all negotiated peace 
     settlements fail and the conflict resumes. Those that succeed 
     address not just security, but also the social and economic 
     roots of the war. The institute says Colombia's agreement 
     addresses root causes more comprehensively than any other 
     negotiated settlement has.
       Every weekday, get thought-provoking commentary from Op-Ed 
     columnists, the Times editorial board and contributing 
     writers from around the world.
       That is no accident. More than in any previous conflict 
     negotiation, Colombia put victims at the center of the 
     process. Victims' issues were not only on the table; victims 
     themselves were at the table, regularly and often, asserting 
     their rights and concerns. As a result, the agreement 
     stipulates that the worst perpetrators of wartime 
     atrocities--whether guerrillas, paramilitaries, or state 
     actors--must confess their crimes, make reparations and 
     accept sentences that include up to eight years of 
     ``restorative justice,'' such as removing land mines, that 
     are deemed acceptable to their victims and ``effective 
     restrictions on liberty.'' Displaced persons must be 
     compensated or returned to their homes and the remains of the 
     disappeared, where possible, identified and returned to loved 
     ones.
       To fulfill these and other commitments, the government must 
     create far-reaching programs and policies that will cost 
     billions of dollars and take years to carry out. It must 
     establish a system of transitional justice, a truth 
     commission and investigative and protective units to 
     safeguard the lives of demobilized former combatants and 
     human rights activists.
       Colombia will bear the largest burden, but the 
     international community, led by the United States, must 
     continue to help.
       The United States has no closer strategic partner in Latin 
     America than Colombia, and our interests in the region are 
     intertwined. Colombian trainers and troops are working today 
     with their American counterparts to help Mexico and Central 
     America's Northern Triangle countries--El Salvador, Guatemala 
     and Honduras--combat the drug cartel violence that is fueling 
     refugee flows, largely of unaccompanied minors. If, in turn, 
     Colombia with American assistance can reverse its recent 
     upturn in coca leaf production, it will take pressure off the 
     Northern Triangle's embattled governments and institutions.
       Two decades ago, Colombia was nearly overrun by guerrilla 
     armies, paramilitaries and drug cartels. Colombians, at great 
     sacrifice, fought back, strengthened their democratic 
     institutions, and created today's opportunity for peace. 
     Colombian leaders and citizens deserve the greatest share of 
     the credit. But steady, sustained bipartisan American support 
     and assistance for 16 years under Plan Colombia made a 
     crucial difference.
       If the peace agreement succeeds, Colombia will emerge as 
     the strongest democracy in Latin America, a political and 
     economic model for the region. As in the past, the United 
     States should help Colombia reach that goal with continuing 
     bipartisan support. Passage of President Obama's request for 
     $450 million in fiscal 2017 for an economic assistance 
     program called Paz (Peace) Colombia would send the 
     hemisphere, where support for Colombia's peace process is 
     universal, an encouraging signal about American staying 
     power.
       In September, at the United Nations General Assembly, 
     Secretary of State John Kerry and his Norwegian counterpart, 
     Borge Brende, secured commitments of $106 million from a 
     coalition of 25 countries to help Colombia clear its land 
     mines by 2021. President Santos showed the group a pamphlet 
     that teaches Colombian children how to avoid land mines on 
     the way to school.
       Mr. Santos said he dreamed of the day when such pamphlets 
     would teach Colombian students only science, art, mathematics 
     or poetry, because Colombia would be land-mine free. Helping 
     turn that dream into a reality would be a fitting memorial to 
     Yisely Isarama.

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