La Habana (Cuba): FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia), an armed group that has engaged in Colombian conflict for more than 50 years, finally agreed to give up arms and embrace Gandhian principle of Non-violence after a series of peace talks with a delegation led by Sri Sri Ravishankar.
On his three-day-visit to Cuba, Sri Sri had several rounds of discussions with the FARC members in an exercise of confidence-building in the peace process in Colombia, which had many hurdles from the past three years.
FARC has requested Sri Sri to actively participate in the peace process. Sri Sri said,“In this conflict, everyone should be considered as victims. And inside every culprit, there is a victim crying for help.”
After a lot of discussions, the FARC finally agreed to embrace the Gandhian principle of non-violence. Commander Ivan Marquez declared in the press conference that they would adopt it.
The FARC agreed that hatred had derailed the peace process. Ivan Marquez said,“We will work for peace and justice for all the people of Colombia.”
Sri Sri declared that his foundation, The Art of Living, would continue to do trauma relief programs to victims and bring the much-needed healing touch to the Americas.
He also urged both sides to hasten the process and not get stuck in small details.
Sri Sri thanked the Indian Ambassador Rajasekhar, the Colombian Government, Cuban Government, Colombian Ambassador to Mexico and all the members of the FARC for this historic meeting.
