OAS URGES MORE SUPPORT FOR AUC PEACE PROCESS

UNCLAS BOGOTA 011735 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PHUM PTER KJUS PINR CO OAS AUC SUBJECT: OAS URGES MORE SUPPORT FOR AUC PEACE PROCESS ¶1. (U) On November 9, OAS Mission Chief Sergio Caramagna, in charge of verifying the paramilitary peace process, publicly urged the international community to give more support to the government's plan to demobilize the United Self Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC). In a statement to Colombia's leading newspaper El Tiempo, Caramagna said large sectors of the international community needed to re-think their skepticism about the process. He said he had never seen a more conditioned peace process than the one with the AUC, and warned that without outside resources such a large demobilization might not be successful. ¶2. (U) According to Caramagna, constant demands that AUC members guilty of major crimes be held accountable are a diversion because, since the onset of the process, the GOC has made clear that such individuals would not receive blanket amnesty and could not re-enter civil society without punishment. Caramagna asserted that the international community should focus instead on the practical aspects of helping the government reinsert several thousand fighters. WOOD