UN Security Council to take up Colombia resolution

UN Security Council members, Friday, Nov. 20, 2015 at United Nations headquarters. AP FILE PHOTO

UNITED NATIONS, United States—The UN Security Council is set to adopt a resolution next week to establish a mission to monitor the end of the lengthy conflict between the Colombian government and leftist rebels.

The draft resolution, obtained by AFP, was submitted by Britain and circulated to all 15 council members on Friday.

The text says the Security Council decides “to establish a political mission … to monitor and verify” for a period of 12 months the ceasefire and cessation of hostilities between the Colombian security forces and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels.

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The mission will be headed by a special representative of United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

The draft resolution asks the UN chief “to present detailed recommendations … regarding the size and operational aspects and mandate of the mission within 30 days of the signature of the ceasefire agreement.”

It specifies that the United Nations team “will be a political mission of unarmed international observers” composed mainly of monitors from Latin American and Caribbean nations.

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A senior UN official in charge of political affairs, Jeffrey Feltman, heads to Quito on Monday to discuss the role regional countries will play in the UN mission, officials said.

Colombia’s government and the FARC rebels had agreed during peace talks in Cuba to ask the United Nations to monitor the eventual end of their five decade-long conflict.