The first memoir of Colombia's peace processes since the 1980s was
released this week in Bogota.

With technical support from IOM and funding from the United
States Agency for International Development (USAID), the series
titled "The Peace Process in Colombia: 1982-2002" (El proceso de
paz en Colombia: 1982-2002) is a reference and information tool to
assist in developing policies, programmes and actions aimed at
fostering peace and reconciliation and assisting victims of the
armed violence.

"The series was five years in the making and is the first of its
kind in the country.  Colombia did not have an official or
private reference tool of this sort that encompassed a full history
of two decades of peace processes," explains José Angel
Oropeza, IOM Chief of Mission in Colombia.

Each of its five volumes looks at a different presidential
period.  Its editor, renowned political scientist Alvaro
Villarraga, presents information, analysis, never-before published
documents, chronologies and other reference material related to all
peace efforts undertaken regardless of their outcome.

Violence generated by armed groups in Colombia dates back almost
60 years and can be traced back to the 1950s.  According to
information published by the Presidential Agency for Social Action
and Cooperation (ACCION SOCIAL) there are 3.1 million internally
displaced Colombians. The agency received 255,000 applications for
assistance from victims of illegal armed groups in the past year
alone.

Although there are no figures on the number of persons actively
engaged in illegal armed groups, in the past six years some 51,000
men, women and minors have demobilized from these groups as a
result of peace accords brokered by the Colombian government or
because individuals have wished to return to civilian life.

For more information, please contact:

Jorge Andres Gallo

IOM Colombia

Tel: (571) 5946410 Ext. 142

E-mail: "mailto:jgallo@iom.int">jgallo@iom.int