After four years of negotiations, the Colombian government and the largest rebel group in the country have reached a deal to end more than 50 years of civil conflict, paving the way for an end to the longest running war in the Americas. The asymmetrical Colombian Conflict lasted 52 years, claimed over 220,000 lives and displaced more than five million people.

The peace agreement outlines a timetable for the rebels, known as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, to abandon their arms. It also sets out a pathway through which former fighters will enter civilian life, and in some cases, run for office. Thousands of rebel fighters were raised since childhood to carry out armed struggle and re-integration into civilian life remains an uncertain process. While the deal has been met with praise from many international leaders, critics of the agreement have said that the government’s deal with the FARC would allow perpetrators of atrocities, among the rebels and on the government side, to be dealt minimal punishment.

Can Colombia become a symbol of hope in a world wracked with conflict? We will be joined by a panel of journalists and experts to discuss this historic peace agreement and what it means for the people of Colombia.

Speakers:

Ed Vulliamy is a writer for The Guardian and The Observer. In 2013, he won the award for literary reporting named after the Polish writer Ryszard Kapuściński for his book Amexica: War Along the Borderline, a vivid dissection of the violent US-Mexico ‘war on drugs’.

Charlotte Gill has been involved in the Colombian Caravana since 2010 and has been a director since 2012. The Colombian Caravana UK Lawyers Group is a charity which works to promote and protect human rights and access to justice in Colombia through working in collaboration with Colombian human rights lawyers and recently organised its fifth biennial international delegation of lawyers to the county. Charlotte has an MSc in Human Rights from the London School of Economics and wrote her dissertation on the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó. Additionally, Charlotte currently works on campaigns and advocacy at ARTICLE 19, a human rights organisation dedicated to the defence of freedom of expression globally.

HE MR Néstor Osorio Londoño is a Colombian diplomat. He became Colombia’s Ambassador to the United Kingdom in February 2014. He was the 27th Permanent Representative of Colombia to the United Nations.

Joe the Plumber, who shot to fame when he questioned President elect barrack Obama about his tax plans, is heading to Israel. Yes, Joe the plumber is embarking upon a new career as… a war correspondent with the conservative website pjtv.com. Don’t believe me, watch the video above and read on,

Dubbed “Joe the Plumber” by McCain’s campaign, Samuel “Joe” Wurzelbacher was held up as an example of an American worker who would be hurt economically by Obama’s election.
Wurzelbacher says he’ll spend 10 days covering the fighting and explaining why Israeli forces are mounting attacks against Hamas.
He tells WNWO-TV in Toledo that he wants “go over there and let their ‘Average Joes’ share their story.” link

“Thursday evening, I was going to the wake for Armando Rodriguez when I received a call. A stranger’s voice told me I was next. I was going to be the next one killed,” Aguirre said. “And so I panicked. I drove through the streets thinking I would be killed then and there. Eventually, I parked my car and called my sons, who were at school, and my wife. They picked me up off the street and we went to the American consulate, but it was closed. We were finally able to get to the border. We crossed the bridge, so now we’re refugees trying to save our lives.” link

Foreign correspondent Christiane Amanpour is set to head up a new nightly programme, The Amanpour Hour, on the CNNI channel in the United States beginning in the summer of 2009,

“Our thinking was we wanted a big, the biggest, name to hub our international prime time, and when it comes to global international superstars that list pretty much begins and ends with Christiane Amanpour.” An edited version of the Amanpour hour is expected to air on weekends on CNN/U.S. Amanpour tells Jensen she will be taking the show on the road. “[Y]ou can’t just sit back and opine about the news; you have to actually go out there and cover it and report it.” link

This will be the last US election post… The Obama campaign used a whole bunch of social media sites to propel their man to the White House. One of the tools they used on election night itself was Flickr. The election night slideshow is an extraordinary view behind the scenes as Obama, his family and close aides wait and watch as the results come in. The pictures aren’t high quality, most are even a bit amateur, but are all the more appealing for it. The Frontline Club’s own election night stream can be seen here. Hat tip to completetosh for flagging this stream. The 2008 US election is now officially over on this blog…

Ramin Mostaghim blogged the reaction on the streets of Tehran to the election of Barrack Obama to the presidency of the United States,

Hassan Mosavi, a 47-year-old barber, said heâ€s been closely following the campaign for days, mostly watching the Voice of America satellite channel. This morning, he awoke to see images of jubilation as Obamaâ€s fans greeted him in Chicago.
“It is a true democracy,” said Mosavi, a former political prisoner. “A black man is victorious. It is important that a man with the middle name Hussein and with Islamic roots is in the White House. He addressed the needs of the poor and grass-roots. He is one of us.” link

“These are journalists who in many ways defined foreign reporting at CBC in the past few decades,” says [a letter to network president Hubert Lacroix] “Some of us grew up watching them… Don has worked in nearly all our bureaux. He is a foreign policy expert. And there is no better war correspondent in Canada than Patrick Brown. To let that kind of expertise walk out the door in an effort to save a tiny fraction of our payroll is baffling.” link

“It’s become expensive to have reporters in different countries,” Schofield said. “So you only see snippets of things – and things happen so fast. In 2003, there were four of us in Iraq and we could go pretty much anywhere. In 2006, our bureau had 14 people in Baghdad and an annual security budget of $1 million. We could barely put our noses out the door.” Schofield said they wanted to do a boat trip down the Euphrates River. “We had this idea to do our own ‘Heart of Darkness’ thing,” he said. “It wasn’t possible. The river was physically blockaded in 14 different points.” link

President Lula of Brazil has a life that reads like a film script. The child of a dysfunctional family, his early life was one of poverty and chaos. In the 1970s, at a time when his country and continent were ruled by right-wing dictators, he switched from football-mad metalworker to militant trade union leader. Dissatisfied with the power of existing parties to bring about change, he founded the Partido dos Trabalhadores, the Workers Party. He was elected as president in 2002 and again in 2006. As a progressive leader in a globalizing world, he has walked a difficult tightrope in international relations with the US, Africa and the Middle East; and in trying to improve the lot of poor and black Brazilians at home. link