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AFP
BOGOTA
THE FIRST UN observers deployed to Colombia to monitor the integration of FARC guerillas and recover their weapons have arrived in Bogota, the govt announced on Tuesday.
The 23 officials arrived Monday following the signing of a historic bilateral ceasefire and guerilla disarmament agreement between the government and the FARC in Havana last week.
The UN will control the plan's implementation after the peace agreements are officially signed on July 23.
The disarmament plan calls for FARC members to gather in 23 zones throughout Colombia to turn over their weapons to UN observers, who will eventually total 450 members.
The officials -- from Argentina, Bolivia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Paraguay and Uruguay -- join an advance team of some 20 civilian staff already in country, UN spokesperson Farhan Haq said.
A second group of observers is set to arrive in July.
"With their arrival, the UN will be able to begin monitoring and verifying activities as soon as the final peace agreement is signed," Haq said.
The UN mission leader, French diplomat Jean Arnault, is currently"actively engaged in discussion in Havana about ceasefire implementation," he added.
The first observers will go out into the field this week or next to check the areas where mission members will meet former guerrillas, Colombian Foreign Minister Maria Angela Holguin said on radio station RCN.
The mission will include"almost entirely unarmed soldiers or former soldiers because in the end, this concerns military issues," she added.
