On Thursday, 30 May 2019, the Afghan Institute for Strategic Studies (AISS) held a lecture session on “Lessons Afghanistan Can Learn from the Colombian Peace Accord” in which government officials, experts, university academics, members of civil society, and representative from embassies participated.
Lotfullah Najafizada, Director of TOLO News, was the speaker and Sami Mahdi Moderated today’s programme. The purpose of this program was to study the Colombian peace process which resulted in reducing a half-a-century-long conflict in that country.
At first, Mr. Najafizada studied the nature of the conflict in Colombia and its similarities to the conflict in Afghanistan. Mr. Najafizada discussed different phases of the conflict and peace process in Colombia. He also discussed the conditions and the agenda agreed on by both sides of the conflict during peace talks, in the Colombian peace process.
He pointed that the lessons Afghanistan can learn from Colombian Peace accord include 1) the will for peace on both sides; 2) consensus among all parties in both sides of the conflict; 3) agreement on the agenda of peace negotiations between both sides of the conflict (FARC Guerrilla group and the Colombian Government); 4) location of talks, preferably a neutral third party; and 5) the guarantor.
The lecture ended with a Q&A interaction and discussion among the speaker and the audience of the program.