Ms Mariela Kohon:

I thank the Deputy for her questions. On the point she raised with respect to the truth, since I wrote the intervention, the government announced a 30% cut to the budget for the whole transitional truth and justice process. The JEP has said that will be very difficult and the Truth Commission has said it will stop it being able to function. The unit for the disappeared will have to cut several of its areas, and already they are having to rely on international supports. One concrete thing would be to pressure the government to give enough resources to that system.

On the coca issue, there is a roadmap in the peace agreement for that. That is not being kept to in the sense that aerial fumigations, to which the government has announced an intention to return, have been shown to be ineffective and they cause huge damage. There is a voluntary crop substitution programme in the peace agreement and 30,000 families are waiting to sign up to that. Approximately 99,000 families are registered in that programme but, of those, only 22,000 have received the payments they are supposed to receive and only one third have received technical assistance. That programme requires many more resources and speed to drive it. Also, the leaders of those communities require a protection programme because many of them are the ones being targeted by different groups with interests in continuing the drugs trade.

On the issue of paramilitaries, it is a very complicated issue and it changes according to the regions of the Colombia and different economic and political interests. The government has not done enough to stop the climate of hate and stigmatisation of social leaders. Even with respect to the justification of some of the killings, the defence Minister reacted to the killing of the FARC member I mentioned and tried to say there had been some kind of armed interaction when he was murdered. The timely action plan, the PAO, which the government announced as a measure to deal with the killings, does not include civil society organisations, human rights organisations or position groups in the programme in terms of their involvement in creating the programme whereas the security measures designed in the peace agreement are a whole host of different and complicated institutional and legal measures which very much include those organisations, and there is also the National Commission for Security Guarantees. While we would not criticise any effort by the government to try to target these killings a more concerted effort needs to be made and some of the measures in the agreement need to be implemented.

In terms of the international community, a letter sent by the foreign Minister to all members of the diplomatic community in Colombia on 25 June caused concern recently. It stated that they can no longer visit the ETCRs, the FARC zones of reincorporation, without the government's authority, that they have to explain why they want to go, that they have to co-ordinate their agenda in conjunction with the government and even when they are going with a UN mission it must be in co-ordination with the government. That violates the right of the international community to visit these zones, which had put much resources into these implementation and reintegration projects. FARC has the right to invite the international community to come and see these projects. It is important to keep an eye on that and to make sure the international community has access to these areas and that it urges the Colombian Government to stop trying to change the agreement as it was signed, to put the necessary resources into its implementation and to try to tackle the climate of polarisation because there are elements within the Administration and within the party that is behind the president which have been vociferously against the peace agreement.