The 5 keys to the bilateral ceasefire between the Government and the ELN

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On August 3, the bilateral ceasefire national between the Government and the National Liberation Army (ELN)which is the longest agreed with the guerrillas since it will last 180 days.

Since the ceasefire was signed on June 9 in Havana, to date there has been much speculation and controversy about how it will work and what it consists of.

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1. What does the ceasefire include?

The agreement signed in Havana – and the subsequent protocols – includes the suspension of “offensive operations against each other”, including “intelligence actions” and the two parties will be able to maintain “defensive actions.” All this with the aim of “lowering the intensity of the conflict.”

There is no list of specific actions that are allowed or prohibited, but both parties agree to “not carry out actions that are prohibited by International Humanitarian Law (IHL)”, the international regulation that sets the rules of war.

In other words, both parties agree not to carry out actions that were already prohibited without a cessation, since they are serious violations and war crimes that no actor should commit even if they are at war.

2. The kidnapping controversy:

With so much ambiguity, there has also been much controversy over whether actions such as kidnapping will be a violation of the cessation of hostilities. After the signing of the agreement, the ELN’s chief negotiator, “Pablo Beltrán”, said almost after getting up from the table that “withholdings (as the guerrillas call kidnappings, if they are not necessary, will not be done.”

But what does IHL say about kidnapping? Well, basically IHL considers that an armed actor can have a person in his power -always treating him with dignified conditions- if he considers her a danger, that is, if he belongs to another side, for example.

However, kidnapping a civilian who has nothing to do with the conflict to ask for money in exchange or exchange for another favor is a hostage-taking and is a non-amnestiable war crime – with or without a ceasefire.

3. Who will oversee the cessation?

This Thursday, when the ceasefire officially begins, the Monitoring and Verification Mechanism (MMV) will also come into operation, which will have a national nucleus but also instances in 9 regions and 22 municipalities.

The national instance is made up of at least 4 members of the UN Verification Mission in Colombia, three members of the Government, three of the ELN and two of the Episcopal Conference.

The MMV will be in charge of monitoring and verification tasks, issuing recommendations to the Dialogue Table, issuing concepts about the facts that constitute possible incidents during the cessation and presenting periodic evaluations, among other tasks.

Also, “in case of deprivation of liberty” of people from one side or another or civilians, the national MMV will be informed that “it will evaluate the situation, follow-up will be done and, if necessary, recommendations will be made.”

The MMV will send monthly management reports to the Peace Dialogue Table, a report 90 days later and one 20 days before it ends. The MMV spokesperson will be the delegate of the UN Verification Mission in Colombia.

4. Sensitive points:

Both the leadership of the ELN and the Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, gave their ranks an order to stop offensive actions against the other side as of July 6.

However, the ELN did so after several days in which it intensified proselytizing actions in the areas where it has the most power (Arauca and Catatumbo) and kidnapped several members of the security forces, including a sergeant and her two children, which released after a few days.

Also in Chocó, the ELN has declared an armed strike several times this year, confining and displacing a large part of the population. Kidnappings and actions like this last one will be key to the goodwill of the guerrillas.

For its part, the ELN criticizes the fact that the security forces can align with other groups to take away control of their territories and they also point to the government for not collaborating with the agreement regarding the treatment of their imprisoned “political prisoners.”

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5. Breaking the termination:

The protocol signed in Cuba makes it clear that “no incident by itself will cause a unilateral breach of the ceasefire agreement.”

Only the Dialogue Table can adopt “continuation or suspension decisions” of the ceasefire, after receiving the reports and recommendations of the MMV.