Rebel leaders arrive in Bogota to sign new peace deal

Mr Santos wants to unite the divided nation behind the new accord after the original deeply-split Colombians between those anxious that the FARC would not be punished and others hopeful the deal would cement an end to violence.

The Colombian president was addressing the Organisation of American States after the hemispheric group endorsed the deal.

The Colombian government and FARC guerrillas will sign a new peace accord in Bogota Thursday, after a previous agreement to end the country’s half-century of conflict was rejected in a referendum, both parties said.

Also on Friday Ascal-G group leader Monroy Fierro, who had fought against oil drilling in the eastern Amazonian region of Colombia, was assassinated.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said Monday that medical tests performed last week found him free of “tumors or metastasis”, allowing him to continue working and living his life normally.

It said three such victims had been killed and two other “attacks” launched in the past two days alone. FARC have accepted modifications on 56 topics, except modifying a contentious point that would bar them from engaging in politics.

That was an apparent reference to the right-wing armed groups and their supporters. That plan is likely to anger members of the opposition, including former President Alvaro Uribe who wants more far-reaching changes to the document. “To have a new agreement, agreed and approved, by Christmas”.

“However, without reforms in the listed issues, the government and FARC agreement is merely a retouch of the agreement rejected by citizens”. But the sides have warned it is fragile.

Uribe, who spearheaded the push to reject the original peace accord in an October plebiscite, is not happy with the revised version and wants deeper changes. “He wanted to defeat the Farc but he couldn’t”, said Farc commander Pablo Catatumbo, one of the rebel commanders in Bogota, writing on his Twitter account.

Expressing concern over recent violence, including killings, that targeted social leaders in several conflict-affected areas in Colombia, the United Nations Mission in the country, as well as the UN Country Team, underlined the need to protect civilians and to build communal harmony.