It comes just two days after the Colombian government and FARC resumed talks following months of stagnation at the negotiating table and fighting on the battlefield.
The talks designed to end the 50-year conflict - Latin America's oldest insurgency - have been dragging on since November 2012.
"I have issued the order to stop as of today bombing raids against camps where there are members of that group," Santos said in an address at a navy event in the northern city of Cartagena.
"We have agreed to de-escalate the conflict. What does that mean? Fewer deaths, less pain, fewer victims," he added, saying only the president could authorize further bombing strikes and hinting he was prepared to do so as long as they did not threaten urban areas.
Santos similarly suspended the bombing campaign in March but ordered a resumption one month later after FARC guerrillas allegedly killed 11 soldiers.
FARC have been observing a unilateral, one-month cease-fire since Monday, but Santos had initially refused to reciprocate.
The latest efforts at speeding up the fragile peace process come after the conflict heated up once more in the spring, with dozens killed on both sides and many Colombians increasingly disillusioned with the pace of talks.
But on July 12, the two sides reached an accord to de-escalate and pledged to get back to the negotiating table.
Bogota agreed for the first time to reduce its anti-rebel operations, a significant step in the talks in the Cuban capital Havana.
Nevertheless, sporadic clashes have continued.
Jorge Restrepo, director of the Conflict Analysis Resource Center, told AFP that the president's order was a significant one.
"It's undoubtedly a breakthrough in the peace process," he said, adding that there had been a "substantial reduction" in violence since the FARC cease-fire.
The war in Colombia has left an estimated 220,000 dead and forced more than six million people from their homes.
So far, the two sides have completed three points on a six-point agenda for the talks. They have also agreed on a program to remove land mines from the countryside and form a commission to probe atrocities, although this panel has not yet been created.
Defense Minister Luis Carlos Villegas said the suspension of the bombing campaign was a gesture of good faith from the government and president.
"We will make periodic assessments, as instructed by the president," he said in a statement.
Source:AFP - globaltimes.cn
26/7/15
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Forensic experts in Colombia have begun a search for dozens of bodies at a landfill site believed to be one of the largest urban mass graves in the world...
ReplyDeleteRelatives of possible victims held a ceremony at the site on the outskirts of the city of Medellin before the excavation started.
The bodies of 90 to 300 people are thought to be buried there.
The disappearances date from 2002, when the army launched an operation against left-wing rebels in the area.
The operation was ordered by Colombia's president at the time, Alvaro Uribe.
Right-wing paramilitaries filled the void when the rebels left the Comuna 13 shantytown area and they are blamed by many for most of the killings.
Criminal gangs are also accused of involvement in some of the disappearances.
Medellin was once considered one of the world's most violent cities.
It was the home of the Medellin Cartel, the drug-trafficking organisation led by Pablo Escobar, who was killed in 1993.....BBC
28/7/15