(Image: Peace Commissioner’s Office)

Representatives of Colombia’s government and paramilitary organization EGC have kicked off formal demobilization talks in Doha, the capital of Qatar, the Peace Commissioner’s Office announced Thursday.

The “Process for the demobilization of the self-called Gaitanista Army of Colombia (EGC) and the construction of peace with the people in the territories” where the paramilitaries exercise control comes after months of preliminary talks, the Peace Commissioner’s Office said in a press release.

As part of the process to build trust among the negotiators, the government and the EGC agreed to a pilot program that seeks to improve the rights of people living in the north of Choco, where the EGC is strongest.

In the pilot program region, the EGC and the government will create working groups that seek to create the mechanisms that initially would guarantee children’s rights and ultimately allow State authorities to effectively administer the historically neglected border region.

Pilot program

• The EGC agreed to inspect their troops and surrender forcibly recruited child soldiers, if there are any, to the government’s Family welfare Institute.
• The government agreed to come with a policy proposal that will make sure that the rights of children from the region be guaranteed.
• The EGC will allow the government to implement a program that would allow coca farmers from the pilot program region to substitute their illicit crops.
• The EGC will allow Colombia’s migration agency to operate in the pilot program region and come up with policies to regulate migration on the Panamanian border.
• The Environment Ministry will be given access to the region to effectively implement environmental protection programs in the region.
• The national government and the judicial branch will come up with a plan to guarantee the presence of administrative and judicial authorities in the region, and the effective imposition of the rule of law.
• The EGC will educate its members about human rights and will make sure that social norms imposed on civilians are in line with the National Citizen Community and Security Code.

On a national level, the EGC vowed not to interfere in upcoming elections and the implementation of demining programs.

The government will ask the United Nations’ Security Council to accompany the demobilization process and asked the Organization of American States, the Government of Qatar, the World Council of Churches and the Catholic Church to monitor compliance with the agreements.

The EGC was formed by dissidents of paramilitary organization AUC in late 2006 in response to irregularities that marred the process that sought to demobilize paramilitary forces at the time.

Since then, the EGC has become Colombia’s largest illegal armed group and effectively controls much of the Pacific and Caribbean coastal regions.

The talks are part of President Gustavo Petro’s “Total Peace” policy, which seek to reduce violence by negotiating peace or the demobilization of multiple illegal armed groups and organized crime groups.