Colombian bishops call for peace and reconciliation

Mar 27, 2005 / 22:00 pm

The Bishops Conference of Colombia and the National Reconciliation Committee issued a joint statement calling for “transparent dialogue and political negotiations that will allow for the building of a Colombia that is reconciled and at peace.”

The statement came as Congress is debating a measure that would allow for the reinsertion into social life of ex-rebel fighters.

Signed by the Archbishop of Bogota, Cardinal Pedro Rubiano Saenz, the document calls for the establishing of judicial guidelines that “reconcile the demands for justice and the desire for peace,” adding that “the legislative debate on measures regarding these issues should unequivocally be oriented towards the achieving of national reconciliation, the supreme demand of the people.”

The bishops stated that, “Colombia needs a law that leads to reparation for the injustices of the conflict and that opens the doors to current and future peace negotiations.”

The statement concludes reiterating the call of the bishops and the National Reconciliation Committee “to the government and the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia to sustain and strengthen their will for peace, to overcome the obstacles and difficulties in order to advance towards a the signing of accords that broadly embrace the free and democratic expression of the Nation made manifest in the decisions of the Congress.”