Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The first peace deal met resistance as many claimed it allowed Farc rebels to get away with murder

The Colombian government and the Farc rebel group have announced a new peace agreement, six weeks after the original deal was rejected in a popular vote.

The two sides, which have been holding talks in Cuba for four years, said the revised plan incorporated proposals from the opposition and others groups.

The initial deal had been deemed to be too favourable to the left-wing rebels.

The new agreement is not expected to be put to another popular vote, but rather submitted to Congress.

"We have reached a new final agreement to end the armed conflict, which incorporates changes, clarifications and some new contributions from various social groups," the two sides said in a statement.

It was read by diplomats from Cuba and Norway, the mediating countries, in the Cuban capital, Havana.

The statement did not give details of the revised agreement but Colombia's lead negotiator, Humberto de la Calle, said it "resolves many criticisms" of the previous deal.

One new requirement was for the Farc to draw up a complete list of its assets, to be used for victim compensation, he added. Further details are expected to be released over the weekend.

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Farc representative Ivan Marquez (left) shook hands with government negotiator Humberto de la Calle

However the leader of the "No" campaign, former President Alvaro Uribe, said the new proposals did not go far enough.

The previous deal was rejected by 50.2% of voters in a vote held on 2 October.

Many objected to the lenient sentences given to fighters who confessed to crimes. Some would have avoided serving any time in conventional prisons.

Those who opposed the deal also balked at the government's plan to pay demobilised Farc rebels a monthly stipend while offering those wanting to start a business financial help.

Polls had initially indicated that the agreement would be approved by a comfortable margin, but opposition to the agreement had been stronger than expected.

Despite the rejection of the deal by voters, President Juan Manuel Santos was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his part in the negotiations.

Colombia's largest rebel group

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) was formed in 1964

Farc, Colombia's largest rebel group, was formed in 1964 with the stated intention of overthrowing the government and installing a Marxist regime.

After modest beginnings, the group rose to prominence through the 1980s and 1990s as its association with the drugs trade improved its financial standing.

At its peak it was the largest and best-equipped guerrilla force in Latin America.

But the number of active Farc fighters has diminished from its estimated high of 20,000 to about 7,000 after thousands of guerrilla fighters were demobilised or killed.

Colombia's second-largest rebel group, the National Liberation Army (ELN), has also been engaged in an armed conflict for more than five decades.

About 260,000 people have killed and millions displaced in the 52-year conflict. </s> BOGOTA, Colombia — Congress formally ratified a revised peace agreement with Colombia's biggest leftist rebel group, capping a torturous four years of negotiations, a stunning referendum rejection, last-minute compromises and two signing ceremonies.

The initial pact was narrowly rejected by voters last month, and President Juan Manuel Santos decided to skip a referendum on the new version and go directly to congress, where the deal's supporters hold a majority. Opponents, led by former President Alvaro Uribe, boycotted the legislative votes, which resulted in unanimous approval by the Senate on Tuesday and by the lower house late Wednesday.

The new 310-page accord with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia introduced 50 changes to the initial deal in an attempt to assuage opponents as the government seeks to end a 52-year conflict that has killed more than 220,000 people and driven almost 8 million from their homes.

The modifications include a prohibition on foreign magistrates judging alleged crimes by government or FARC troops, and a commitment from the rebels to forfeit assets, some amassed through drug trafficking, to help compensate victims. But the FARC rejected demands for jail sentences for rebel leaders responsible for atrocities and stricter limits on their future participation in politics.

The compromises weren't enough for some of the deal's opponents.

"There needs to be a balance between peace and justice, but in this agreement there's complete impunity," Uribe, now a senator, said during the Senate debate. Other senators accused him of standing in the way of a peace deal that he pursued with the FARC as president in 2002-10.

Santos said ratification will set in motion the start of a six-month process in which the FARC's 8,000-plus guerrillas will concentrate in some 20 rural areas and turn over their weapons to United Nations monitors. "Tomorrow a new era begins," he said Wednesday.

But the rebels insist their troops won't start demobilizing until lawmakers pass an amnesty law freeing some 2,000 rebels in jail.

"D-Day starts after the first actions are implemented," the rebel leader Pastor Alape, part of the FARC's 10-member secretariat, said last week after the new accord was signed. "The president unfortunately has been demonstrating an attitude that creates confusion in the country."

The debate over amnesty highlights one of the peace deal's early challenges: the need for congress to pass legislation implementing the accord and setting up special peace tribunals.

Santos was initially counting on swift approval of the needed changes that in some cases require constitutional amendments. But the referendum loss has left the status of his fast-track authority in doubt, awaiting a ruling by the constitutional court. Experts say a solid pro-peace coalition could crumble if implementation drags on and butts against the political maneuvering for the 2018 presidential election.

Beyond the legal hurdles, there is also concern FARC fighters will wind up joining criminal gangs rampant across Colombia or the much-smaller rebel National Liberation Army, which for months has been playing cat and mouse with the government over opening a peace process of its own. On Wednesday, both sides said they would delay until January any decision about when to start talks.

Combating security threats will test the state's ability to make its presence felt in traditionally neglected rural areas at a time of financial stress triggered by low oil prices.

There is also a risk that peace could trigger more bloodshed, as it did following a previous peace process with the FARC in the 1980s. At that time, thousands of former guerrillas, labor activists and communist militants were killed by right-wing militias, sometimes in collaboration with state agents.

Worries about new bloodshed, although less prevalent than in the darker days of Colombia's half-century conflict, has become more urgent with more than a dozen human rights defenders and land activists in areas dominated by the FARC being killed by unknown assailants since the initial signing ceremony in September. So far this year, 70 have been killed, according to Bogota-based We Are Defenders, more than in all of 2015 and 2014. </s> BOGOTA, Colombia--Congress formally ratified a revised peace agreement with Colombia's biggest leftist rebel group, capping a torturous four years of negotiations, a stunning referendum rejection, last-minute compromises and two signing ceremonies.

The initial pact was narrowly rejected by voters last month, and President Juan Manuel Santos decided to skip a referendum on the new version and go directly to congress, where the deal's supporters hold a majority. Opponents, led by former President Alvaro Uribe, boycotted the legislative votes, which resulted in unanimous approval by the Senate on Tuesday and by the lower house late Wednesday.

The new 310-page accord with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia introduced 50 changes to the initial deal in an attempt to assuage opponents as the government seeks to end a 52-year conflict that has killed more than 220,000 people and driven almost 8 million from their homes.

The modifications include a prohibition on foreign magistrates judging alleged crimes by government or FARC troops, and a commitment from the rebels to forfeit assets, some amassed through drug trafficking, to help compensate victims. But the FARC rejected demands for jail sentences for rebel leaders responsible for atrocities and stricter limits on their future participation in politics.

The compromises weren't enough for some of the deal's opponents.

"There needs to be a balance between peace and justice, but in this agreement there's complete impunity," Uribe, now a senator, said during the Senate debate. Other senators accused him of standing in the way of a peace deal that he pursued with the FARC as president in 2002-10.

Santos said ratification will set in motion the start of a six-month process in which the FARC's 8,000-plus guerrillas will concentrate in some 20 rural areas and turn over their weapons to United Nations monitors. "Tomorrow a new era begins," he said Wednesday.

But the rebels insist their troops won't start demobilizing until lawmakers pass an amnesty law freeing some 2,000 rebels in jail.

"D-Day starts after the first actions are implemented," the rebel leader Pastor Alape, part of the FARC's 10-member secretariat, said last week after the new accord was signed. "The president unfortunately has been demonstrating an attitude that creates confusion in the country."

The debate over amnesty highlights one of the peace deal's early challenges: the need for congress to pass legislation implementing the accord and setting up special peace tribunals.

Santos was initially counting on swift approval of the needed changes that in some cases require constitutional amendments. But the referendum loss has left the status of his fast-track authority in doubt, awaiting a ruling by the constitutional court. Experts say a solid pro-peace coalition could crumble if implementation drags on and butts against the political maneuvering for the 2018 presidential election. </s> BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos and Marxist FARC rebel leader Rodrigo Londono signed a revised peace accord on Thursday in a far more sober ceremony than a first deal rejected last month by millions at a plebiscite.

As they inked the pact with a pen made from a bullet at a historic Bogota theater, onlookers chanted “We did it!”

The new accord to end 52 years of war in Latin America’s fourth-largest economy was put together in just over a month after the original pact was narrowly and unexpectedly defeated in an Oct. 2 referendum for being too lenient on the rebels.

The government and Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) worked together in Cuba for four years to negotiate an end to the region’s longest-running conflict that has killed more than 220,000 and displaced millions in the Andean nation.

“It’s final!” said Santos, standing before white banners of peace and Colombia’s red, yellow and blue flag

“I invite you to leave decades of violence forever in the past, to unite for all of us, for Colombia, for this dear nation, and to work together for reconciliation around shared ideals of peace.”

Opposition leader and former President Alvaro Uribe spearheaded the push to reject the original accord and wanted deeper changes to the new version.

Opponents to the first deal are furious Santos will ratify the new deal in Congress instead of holding another vote and is urging street protests.

Santos had always promised Colombians would have the final word in a referendum, but is sidestepping that for the revised deal.

Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos and Marxist FARC rebel leader Rodrigo Londono, known as Timochenko, shake hands after signing a peace accord in Bogota, Colombia November 24, 2016. REUTERS/Jaime Saldarriaga

After the signing, he sent the deal straight to Congress for a vote next week. The government’s majority means approval is likely to be speedy.

FROM ARMS TO POLITICS

The signing ceremony marked a six-month countdown for the 7,000-strong FARC to abandon weapons and form a political party.

Despite widespread relief at an end to conflict, many among Colombia’s largely conservative residents are angry because, like the original agreement, the new deal will not jail FARC leaders who committed crimes like kidnappings and massacres, and it allows them to hold political office.

“As a party without weapons, the FARC can present its political project. It will be Colombians who support or reject it with a vote,” said 65-year-old Santos.

The understated signing in the 131-year-old Teatro Colon before mostly government and local dignitaries was a far cry from the fanfare celebration in September, where the coastal city of Cartagena hosted world leaders.

Santos, who won the Nobel Peace Prize last month for his peace efforts, wants to get the deal in place as quickly as possible to maintain a fragile bilateral ceasefire.

“For the good of the nation, let us make words the only weapon Colombians are permitted to use,” said Londono, 57, who is known by his nom de guerre Timochenko.

The expanded and highly complex new 310-page document makes only small modifications to the original text, such as clarifying private property rights and detailing more fully how the rebels would be confined in rural areas for crimes committed during the war.

Slideshow (4 Images)

The FARC, which began as a rebellion fighting rural poverty, has battled a dozen governments as well as right-wing paramilitary groups.

An end to the war with the FARC is unlikely to end violence in Colombia as the lucrative cocaine business has given rise to criminal gangs and traffickers. </s> Colombia’s government and Marxist guerillas said on Saturday they have agreed on a new peace deal to end their 52-year war, six weeks after the original one was narrowly rejected in a referendum for being too lenient on the rebels.

The government and Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), who have been holding talks in Havana for four years, said they had incorporated the proposals of various sectors of society into the new accord.

Read more: Colombians narrowly reject peace accord to end 52-year war with FARC rebels

Read more: Colombia’s undecided: Can all be forgiven after so much pain and loss?

In photos: A look at Colombia's long civil war

“We have reached a new final accord to end the armed conflict that integrates changes, precisions and proposals suggested by the most diverse sectors of society,” both sides said in a statement.

“We call upon all Colombia and the international community....to back this new accord and its quick implementation so as to leave the tragedy of war in the past,” the statement read. “Peace cannot wait anymore.”

However, former President Alvaro Uribe, who led opposition to the original deal said he asked for the opportunity for his camp and the victims of the conflict to briefly study the new accord before its implementation.

“I have asked the president that the texts they announce in Havana not be definitive,” he said in a statement posted on his Twitter account, adding that his camp might want to make some further tweaks.

President Juan Manuel Santos has staked his legacy on a deal with the country’s biggest rebel group to end the five-decade war that has killed hundreds of thousands and displaced millions.

It is still unclear if Santos will put the accord up for a popular vote again. He is set to speak about the new deal later on Saturday. </s> Colombia’s government and its largest rebel group have signed a new peace accord following the surprise rejection of an earlier deal by voters in a referendum.

The latest agreement aims to address some of the concerns of opponents of the original deal, who said it was too lenient on a leftist rebel group that had kidnapped and committed war crimes.

“The new deal is an opportunity to clear up doubts but, above all, to unite us,” said government negotiator Humberto de la Calle, who signed the accord along with rebel negotiator Ivan Marquez in Havana.

It aims to end a half-century-long conflict that has claimed more than 220,000 lives and driven almost eight million people from their homes.

Mr de la Calle described the text of the modified accord as “much better” than the previous one, but did not say if, or how, it would be submitted again to voters or to congress.

President Juan Manuel Santos and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) inked an initial peace deal on September 26th amid international fanfare after more than four years of negotiations.

But voters rejected it on October 2nd by just 55,000 votes, dealing a stunning setback to Mr Santos who won the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to end Colombia’s conflict.

Mr Santos immediately began looking for ways to rescue the deal and the sides extended a ceasefire until December 31st to get the modified agreement done.

The rebels insisted they would not go back to the drawing board and throw out years of arduous negotiations with the government.

“The meetings with the Farc delegation were intense,” said Mr de la Calle. “We worked 15 days and nights to reach this new agreement.”

He said some modifications made were related to justice, punishment for combatants accused of war crimes and reparations for the conflict’s victims.

He said negotiators had worked out the details of how and where those responsible for crimes would serve their sentences, addressing complaints by opponents that rebels accused of atrocities would not be imprisoned but submitted to “alternative punishments”.

Other modifications include requiring the rebels to present an inventory of acquired money and holdings, and the provision of safeguards for private owners and property during reforms carried out in the countryside.

Cases of conflict participants accused of drug trafficking would be dealt with under Colombia’s penal code and heard by high courts.

In a televised address on Saturday night, Mr Santos said he had instructed the negotiating team to return to Bogota to explain the details of the new accord to the “no” campaign led by conservative former president Álvaro Uribe.

Mr Marquez said “the implementation of the accord is all that remains for the construction of the basis for peace in Colombia”.

US secretary of state John Kerry congratulated Colombians, including Mr Santos and those from the “no” campaign, for reaching the new peace deal.

Colombia’s government is also seeking to hold peace talks with the country’s second-biggest rebel group.

But Mr Santos wants the National Liberation Army, known by its Spanish initials ELN, to first free a former congressman it has held captive for six months before holding negotiations.

The ELN is far smaller than Farc and was founded in the same year, 1964. Inspired by the Cuban revolution, it is ideologically more doctrinaire than the Farc. It has fewer than 2,000 fighters, making it less than one-third the size of the Farc. </s> Bogotá, Colombia- Colombia's government and FARC rebels signed a controversial revised peace accord Thursday to end their half-century conflict, set to be ratified in Congress despite bitter opposition.

President Juan Manuel Santos and guerrilla leader Rodrigo "Timochenko" Londono signed the new deal with a pen made from a spent bullet, in a low-key ceremony in the capital Bogota.

The original deal -- signed with great fanfare in September -- was rejected by voters in a referendum last month, a shock upset that sent negotiators back to the drawing board.

The new plan bypasses a vote by the Colombian people, against bitter opposition from critics.

They say the revisions are only cosmetic and will still grant impunity for war crimes committed by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

Santos, who won this year's Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to end the conflict, said the new deal was better than the original.

"It includes the hopes and observations of the vast majority of Colombians," he said after signing it.

"We all know in our souls that the cost of the armed conflict is too high."

The deal was immediately sent to Congress, where it is expected to pass after being debated next week. Santos and his allies hold a majority in the legislature.

The government and FARC both say they are under pressure for fear that their fragile ceasefire could break down.

A recent wave of alleged assassinations in conflict zones has added to calls to seal a deal fast.

But an aftermath of discord and uncertainty appears likely as opponents promised to keep resisting the peace plan, including with street protests.

"The country has spoken. It has said, 'Yes to peace, but without impunity,'" said top opponent Alvaro Uribe, a conservative ex-president and senator.

"What we have here remains total impunity," he told RCN television.

Speaking later in the Senate, he called for another referendum on some of the contested "basic issues" in the deal.

The government and FARC negotiators' redrafted version of the deal includes concessions from the rebels on issues such as reparations for victims.

But Uribe complains it still ignores key demands, notably on punishing FARC leaders for the killings and kidnappings blamed on the group.

Under the deal, the Marxist rebels would disarm and become a political party.

The deal allows non-custodial sentences for convicted FARC members.

Uribe and his allies demand tougher punishments and say rebel leaders guilty of war crimes should not be allowed to run for office before completing their sentences.

A survey by pollster Datexco published on Wednesday found that 58 percent of people want more revisions to the deal.

Congress will open a live televised debate on the deal from next Tuesday.

On the streets of Bogota, passerby Overnis Diaz welcomed the agreement.

"We have lived through a war of more than 50 years. We want no more bloodshed," he said.

But another local, Dayanna Gil, said: "It should be approved through a popular vote... We should all have a say." </s> Both the Colombian government and FARC rebels declare they remain committed to revive negotiations after voters rejected peace agreement

BOGOTA: Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos opened a new national dialogue Monday to seek peace with FARC rebels as both sides scrambled to revive a peace deal to end the half-century conflict.

In a televised address a day after voters rejected the agreement in a referendum, Santos said he had asked the government’s chief negotiator Humberto de la Calle to “begin discussions as soon as possible addressing all the necessary issues to have an agreement and realize the dream of every Colombian to end the war with the FARC.”

De la Calle had earlier offered his resignation, saying he did not want to be “an obstacle to what comes next.”

Monday’s announcement came after Santos – who has staked his legacy on ending the 52-year-old conflict – called an emergency meeting with leaders of the country’s political parties to try to chart a way forward after Sunday’s shock referendum defeat.

As he arrived, a visibly crestfallen Santos said the meeting would seek “common ground and unity.”

“That’s more important now than ever,” he said.

The leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Rodrigo Londono, meanwhile said in a video from Havana – where the peace talks were held – that the Marxist guerrillas, like the government, remained committed to an ongoing ceasefire.

Londono – better known by the nom de guerre Timoleon ‘Timochenko’ Jimenez – said the rebels were prepared to “fix” the rejected deal.

The result “does not mean the battle for peace is lost,” he said.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who had offered a UN team to oversee the disarmament process, said he had “urgently” sent his Colombia envoy to Havana, where the four-year talks have been held, for new consultations.

But the outcome left no clear path to end a conflict that has claimed more than 260,000 lives and left 45,000 missing.

Opinion polls had showed the “Yes” camp well ahead, and negotiators had said there was no Plan B in the event of a “No” vote.

The peace deal had been hailed as historic from the time it was concluded on August 24 to the moment it was signed last week in the presence of Ban and US Secretary of State John Kerry.

But many Colombians resented the blood shed by the Marxist guerrillas and the lenient punishment the deal meted out for their crimes.

Voters rejected the agreement by a razor-thin margin: 50.21 percent for the “No” camp to 49.78 percent for “Yes.”

Voter turnout was low, at just over 37 percent.

Although a referendum was not required to adopt the deal, Santos insisted on holding one to ensure its legitimacy.

The deal, which failed Sunday when Colombians narrowly voted against it, broadly split the country between those who have experienced the war first-hand and those who have mainly watched it on the news, experts said.

“The rural world, which has lived through the conflict, bet on peace. The urban world said ‘No,’” said Ariel Avila of Colombia’s Peace and Reconciliation Foundation.

“Because urban Colombia didn’t live through combat, air strikes… it doesn’t see the need,” for making concessions to the leftist rebels, he told AFP. — AFP </s> OSLO -- Colombia's peace deal is a model for countries at war like Syria, President Juan Manuel Santos said Saturday as he accepted his Nobel Peace Prize, though a ceremony for other laureates was marked by Bob Dylan's no-show.

Earlier in the day in Oslo, Santos said in his acceptance speech that the Colombian peace accord, signed on Nov. 24 to end five decades of conflict, was a "model for the resolution of armed conflicts that have yet to be resolved around the world."

"It proves that what, at first, seems impossible, through perseverance may become possible even in Syria or Yemen or South Sudan," Santos said as he collected his prize at a lavish ceremony at Oslo's City Hall, decked out in red, orange and white roses and carnations imported from Colombia for the occasion.

Santos, who wore a dove lapel pin on his dark suit and whose wife donned a white dress with a peace symbol cut-out in the back, said his government was itself inspired by other peace processes in Northern Ireland, South Africa, the Middle East and Central America.

After a first peace deal was rejected in a popular vote on Oct. 2, the rebels and government negotiated a new accord to end the conflict, which has killed more than 260,000 people, left tens of thousands missing and forced nearly 7 million to flee their homes.

"The Colombian peace agreement is a ray of hope in a world troubled by so many conflicts and so much intolerance," he said.

Yet in an interview with AFP, Santos acknowledged that the hardest part of the country's peace process was yet to come.

The period ahead "is a more difficult phase than the (negotiation) process itself, and will require a lot of effort, perseverance and humility," he said.

"A lot of coordination efforts will also be needed ... to bring the benefits of peace to the regions that have suffered the most in the conflict," he added.

He also said he could offer no guarantees there would be a peace deal in place with Colombia's second-largest rebel group, the National Liberation Army (ELN), before the end of his mandate in 2018.

"I will do my best but to establish a time frame is always counter-productive in negotiations of this sort," he said.

In a speech at the ceremony, Berit Reiss-Andersen, deputy chairwoman of the Nobel committee, all sides in Colombia to "continue on the road to reconciliation."

The Nobel prize consists of a gold medal, a diploma and a check for 8 million Swedish kronor (US$871,000), a sum Santos promised to donate to the victims of the war.

In Stockholm, 1,500 guests attended the formal ceremony where the laureates in the sciences, economics and literature were honored, and where the buzz was all about Dylan's absence.

Dylan sent a thank-you speech that was read at the gala banquet at Stockholm's City Hall, attended by around 1,300 guests and the Swedish royal family.

According to the Nobel Foundation, his prize should be presented to him in person sometime in 2017, either in Sweden or abroad.
The Government of Colombia and rebel group FARC announce a new peace deal after an earlier agreement was rejected by a referendum six weeks ago.