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Bogot, 16th October, 2012

Juan Manuel Santos

President of the Republic of Colombia

Timolen Jimnez

SecretariatRevolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia FARC-EP

Respected sirs:

I am writing on behalf of the Colombian Campaign to ban Landmines, (CCCM)member of the International Campaign To Ban Landmines, (ICBL). This globalorganization has worked since 1992 to promote an end to landmines. In 1997 itsefforts succeeded when the Ottowa Convention was signed by many countries,declaring an international prohibition on this kind of arm. In the same year, theNobel Peace Prize was awarded to the noted activist, Jody Williams in recognitionof his efforts as leader of the organization.

Today 160 countries are part of the convention and have succeeded in destroyingstockpiles, a global non-commercialization policy and the cleaning of millions ofhectares of land which in turn has benefitted farmers and entire populations fromdifferent regions of the world. Equally, the organization has developed a globalpolicy with regards to comprehensive victim assistance.

In 1999, in Mexico City and as part of a meeting to promote the treaty and its

terms, representatives from the CCCM and ICBM started a dialogue with Marcos

Calarc, representative of the FARC, asking that they incorporate the theme of

land mines as a specific point in the peace negotiations developed with the

Government of President Andrs Pastrana.

On the 6th May of this year, delegates from the National Government and the

FARC led by Camilo Gomez and Raul Reyes included the theme in a documentknown as Common Agenda for the Negotiations between FARC and the

Government for a new Colombia, signed in La Machace, in the municipality of San

Vicente del Cagun, Caquet.

In March of 2001, the Colombian state converted into a State Party convention.

With the subsequent failure of the peace process in 2002, the CCCM has

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promoted partial treaties to respect the civilian population in the 22 departments

where we have focused on education about the risks of anti-personnel landmines.

(See the cases of Samaniego, Nario and Micoahumado, Bolvar).

Later, in the period 2003-2007, we made efforts to bring about the end of the war

between the Government and the National Liberation Army (ELN) incorporating thetheme ofmines as part of the Base Agreement signed between representatives

of ELN and the National Government.

This is the story until now.

Today, the delegates have defined an agenda.

We want to take advantage of the situation to reiterate the necessity to include, as

a priority, the theme of land mines and the remnants of war explosives (REG) and

the effects that this causes to the civilian population.

This is a necessary decisin that has the full support of national and international

society.

Best Wishes,

Alvaro Jimnez Milln.

National Co-ordinator

Colombian Campaign to Ban Landmines.