Colombia, 2013

I

should like to depart slightly from protocol and start

my statement by speaking about a humble woman, a

Colombian named María Zabala, who has to bear the

burden of immense pain in her heart day in and day

out. Two decades ago, armed members of illegal groups

arrived outside her house located on the Colombian

Caribbean coast, determined to impose their rule

of terror. In front of her and her small children, they

murdered her husband and two other relatives. They

forced her to leave her house and then they burned

everything down. She barely managed to remove the

corpses from the ashes. She buried them right there

and fled from her parcel of land with her children

and without any belongings. All she carried was the

immense weight of her tragedy.

Today, María Zabala is a courageous and inspiring

leader, a leader of victims, who is working for peace

in my country. In Colombia, sadly, there are many

thousands of cases like María Zabala’s. It is estimated

that over the past 50 years, over 220,000 people died

because of the conflict. That is more than twice the

death toll of the Bosnian war in the former Yugoslavia,

which was an open and ruthless conflict that moved the

entire world. And to that, we would have to add the

injured, the people mutilated by anti-personnel mines,

those who have suffered the infamy of kidnapping and

those uprooted from their own land, who could amount

to almost 5 million people.

That is the harsh and ugly reality of a conflict that

unfortunately persists to this day. It is the oldest and

the last conflict in the western hemisphere. In spite

of the conflict, Colombia has achieved unprecedented

progress in recent years on matters of security, in

the fight against poverty and inequality, and in its

economic performance. We have achieved much — a

great deal — in the midst of a confrontation. Imagine

how much more we could have done without the

confrontation. And I must confess to the Assembly that

for me, as the head of the Government, it would have

been easy to continue to move forward on the path that

we were on and to leave the conflict unresolved, because

waging war — and I know how to wage war — is easier

than seeking peace.

It would have been easier, but not responsible,

because continuing to coexist with the conflict would be

like sentencing millions of people to many more years

of violence, fear, poverty and victimization. It would

not be responsible towards Latin America or towards

the world, as they also suffer, in different ways, from

the effects of the Colombian conflict. And it would not

be responsible towards my own conscience, because we

have the best possible opportunity before us today — a

real opportunity, and maybe the last — to put an end

to the conflict. I could not die in peace if I failed to do

everything within my power to seize the opportunity

presented.

My generation has not seen a single day of peace,

and my dream is for my children and the children of all

Colombians to have the opportunity to know peace. I

hope that the guerrilla forces understand that the time

has come to leave this 50-year confrontation behind;

that the time has come to move from bullets to votes,

from weapons to discussion; that the time has come for

them to continue their struggle, but within democracy.

Today, before the General Assembly, we Colombians

want to thank the international community for the

support we have received in the endeavour to bring an

end to our conflict through dialogue. With the world

as our witness, we wish to assert our right to achieve

the peace. We are tired of being afraid, we are tired of

violence, we are tired of a conflict that pits the children

of the same nation against each other and delays our

development. María Zabala is one victim among many,

all of whom are entitled to justice, truth and reparations

and to not seeing history repeat itself. That is what we

are working on in our country.

My Government has promoted our most ambitious

bill yet, recognizing and compensating victims in the

midst of a conflict. I had the honour of ratifying that bill

in the presence of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. But

our commitment goes beyond serving the victims of the

past; our most urgent obligation today is to eliminate

the possibility of new victims being claimed by the

conflict. Our obligation is to end the conflict now and

to ensure that the spiral of violence and pain will not

continue to recur. We are doing that in accordance with

our democratic tradition — of course respecting, as we

always have, the rule of law — and in compliance with

our international obligations. We wish to achieve an

end to our conflict without relinquishing justice, much

less the truth and due care of the victims.

I take this opportunity to offer my thoughts to the

General Assembly on the role of the United Nations and

the multilateral organizations in our peace process and

its future implementation. The subject is relevant and

current, since Colombia is possibly the first country in

the world to engage in a process of that nature since

the entry into force of the Rome Statute, which will

make us a model for other cases where dialogue is given

priority over armed solutions, as should be the case.

Former United Nations High Commissioner for

Human Rights Louise Arbour of Canada recently stated

that international doctrine had not been successful

in finding practical answers as to how to resolve the

real tension that exists between peace and justice in

a negotiation process. Ms. Arbour recalled examples,

such as International Criminal Tribunals for the

Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, which had been given

immense resources but had yielded very poor results.

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda,

established in 1994, has managed to dispose of only

40 cases out of the nearly 800,000 murders committed

in a single year. In 20 years, the International Criminal

Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia has resolved barely

100 cases.

Therefore, how can we simultaneously achieve

the end of armed conflict, fulfil our obligation to

investigate and prosecute and realize the rights of

victims? That dilemma must be confronted with

honesty and seriousness, and that is what we are doing

in Colombia.

We have adopted an integrated strategy for

transitional justice that addresses the issues of truth,

justice and reparations, which we hope will enable

us to make the transition towards peace. We can say

that we have been pioneers in the implementation of

transitional justice measures in the midst of conflict,

giving priority to satisfying the rights of victims. No

one in my country wants the perpetuation of violence.

What we are asking from the United Nations and

the international community is that both Colombia’s and

every nation’s right to seek peace be respected We ask

for continued support in that effort, along with respect

for our decisions and our approach, with confidence in

the fact that our actions have never deviated from the

values of the international community.

We cannot investigate every action committed over

half a century of violence, prosecute each and every one

of those responsible and then find ourselves unable to

follow through. But what we can do is to build a realistic

and transparent strategy that may satisfy the rights of

all the victims in the best possible way. If we understand

justice and the fight against impunity in a transition as

a set of measures aimed at satisfying the victims and

not just as the administration of criminal processes,

it will be possible to find a comprehensive solution

for everyone. I refer to measures such as genuinely

establishing the facts of events, the acknowledgment

of responsibility, the recovery of trust, access to

reparations, and measures aimed at ensuring that there

will be no recurrence. In that way justice becomes — as

it should be — a support for, rather than an obstacle to,

peace.

I want to be clear: there will be no impunity for

crimes against humanity or war crimes committed

in a systematic fashion. On the contrary, this is the

first time that Colombia is seriously assuming the

obligation of fighting impunity for crimes committed

in our armed conflict. The purpose is not to sacrifice

justice to achieve peace, but rather to achieve peace

with maximum justice. I am saying that out of deep

conviction. There is much at stake, that is, no less than

an end to the half-century long conflict, as well as the

fate of 47 million Colombians.

We have been involved in talks for one year

now, but we have reached agreements on just one of

the six items on the agenda. I am still optimistic, but

the patience of the Colombian people is not infinite.

The guerrillas will have to decide whether they opt

for an honourable and lasting peace, or whether they

will continue to wage war. From this rostrum, I call

upon them to understand that history has led us to this

decisive moment. The time for decisions has come. If

we leave empty-handed, we will doom our nation to

many more years of bloodshed and pain. We cannot

miss this opportunity.Future generations and history

will not forgive us.

Moreover, our conflict, with all its violence and

cruelty, has been affected by a poisonous scourge that

fuels it and is fuelled by it: drug trafficking. That illicit

activity has been the main funding source for violence

and terrorism in my country — and I would say in the

whole world as well in recent times. Without the grim

influence of drug trafficking, which fuels the fires of

our war, I am certain that the war would already have

ended. That is why we have included the topic of illicit

drugs as a specific item in the agenda of the discussions

with the guerrillas.

If we manage to have the guerrillas change sides,

once they have demobilized, and become an ally of

the State in order to definitively curb drug trafficking

and eliminate illegal crops, just imagine what could

be accomplished. A Colombia without coca crops and

without a conflict was once a utopia and an impossible

dream, but it is one that we can now realize for the

benefit not only of Colombians but of the whole world.

Almost a half century ago, in this very place, the

Convention that gave birth to the war on drugs was

adopted. Today we must recognize that that war has not

been won. I say that as the President of the country that

has suffered the most deaths, the most bloodshed, the

most sacrifices in that war, and also the country that

has achieved the most results in the fight against this

scourge and the mafias that underpin it.

Last year, when chairing the Summit of the

Americas, fully aware of that dilemma, I led a proposal

to debate and explore different scenarios in the fight

against the global drug problem, aimed at evaluating

what we are doing and at seeking ways to be more

effective. We commissioned the Organization of

American States to conduct studies with experts,

academics and people with different approaches on

how to face the problem. Those studies were delivered

to us in May. Different Governments are evaluating

them and they should serve as inputs for discussions at

all universities and think tanks, and in the context of

different forums, not just from Latin America but from

the whole world, because it is a global problem that

requires a global solution. Because of that — because

it is a global problem — we expect their conclusions

to also be discussed in this body, the United Nations,

which has already called for a special session on the

drug problem to be convened in 2016.

If we act together on the drug problem and adopt a

new, modern and comprehensive vision that is free of

ideological or political bias, imagine how much harm

and violence we will be able to prevent. I am not just

speaking about harm to people, but also harm to nature,

because drug trafficking has become a major destroyer

of our tropical forests and forests in general, in what

can be termed a veritable ecocide.

Colombia is deeply committed to environmental

protection. At the Rio de Janeiro Conference on

Sustainable Development, we put forward the proposal

to establish sustainable development goals as a

mandatory benchmark in the development agenda for

the coming decades. We are taking an active part in

the design of those goals, and they can and should

be incorporated into a visionary and ambitious

development agenda for all countries as of 2015. In fact,

we were a member of the High-level Panel on the Post-

2015 Development Agenda, convened by the Secretary-

General and co-chaired by the Prime Minister of the

United Kingdom, David Cameron, which has already

presented its report.

Colombia, for its part, is continuing to do a great

deal. For example, a few weeks ago, we doubled the

area of the largest national park in Colombia, the

Chiribiquete National Natural Park, located in the very

heart of our Amazon region. We designated that area a

natural reserve and prohibited mining and deforestation

activities in an area roughly the size of Belgium, and

not just in any place, but in the area where the Amazon

region has the greatest biological and cultural diversity.

This very morning we are launching, with the

Prime Minister of Norway and five other countries,

the New Climate Economy initiative. With the support

of the most respected research institutes, we will seek

the best way of making economic efficiencies and the

fight against poverty compatible with the preservation

of the environment. In that way we are shouldering our

responsibilities with respect to climate change, which

has already had an impact on Colombians. We will

protect the sources of oxygen and water necessary not

just for Colombia’s survival but that of the entire planet.

I will conclude by stating that in my country we are

working and will continue to work to prevent the plight

of María Zabala and millions of other victims from ever

recurring. Never again! I hope that the President of

Colombia will come to the Assembly next year bearing

the good news that the conflict has come to an end.