Colombian government, insurgents to jointly search for missing conflict victims

Colombia's government and its largest rebel group have agreed to begin the process of locating thousands of people who have disappeared in five decades of armed conflict, local media reported Sunday.

The two sides made the announcement on Saturday in Cuba, where the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) are negotiating a peace treaty.

They also agreed to "create a special unit" to search for the missing conflict victims before a final peace deal is reached, according to their joint statement published by the Colombian news network Noticias.

"More than 77,000 Colombians are currently registered as missing," according to English-language news website Colombia Reports. The Colombian Red Cross said it was ready to support the implementation of the search measures.

Both the rebels and the military will provide all information they may have on unmarked graves and unidentified victims "to alleviate the suffering of the families," the statement said.

The Special Unit for the Search of Disappeared Persons (UBPD) will provide families with an official report on the information obtained about the missing.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos hailed the agreement on Twitter as "another step towards peace."

The FARC, a guerrilla group formed by poor landless peasants, has been battling the state since the early 1960s in what has come to be known as Latin America's longest running civil war that has claimed 220,000 lives and displaced some 6 million people.

The FARC and the government have been negotiating a peace deal since November 2012, and have reached at least partial agreements on several issues, including agrarian reform and rural development, and the FARC's transition to a political party or movement after laying down arms.

In September, they pledged to reach a final peace treaty by March 2016.

Source: XINHUA