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Press Release

France Presents Financial Contribution to the OAS Mission to Support the Peace Process in Colombia

The Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), José Miguel Insulza, and the Permanent Observer of France to the organization, Pierre-Henri Guignard, today signed an agreement that stipulates a contribution of 400,000 Euros for the Mission to Support the Peace in Colombia (MAPP) that the OAS has directed since 2004.

At the signing ceremony, Secretary General Insulza thanked France for its "important contribution" to the Mission, noting that it will allow the organization to continue to carry out the mandates that both the Permanent Council and the General Assembly have given the OAS, "especially on the implementation of the National Program for Economic and Social Reintegration, the monitoring of the implementation, application and dissemination of the justice and peace process, and the evaluation of the efforts by the National Commission for Reparation and Reconciliation, and to help prevent the recruitment of minors by criminal groups. "

The head of the hemispheric organization noted that the agreement "is part of the work that the OAS has carried out with France on many activities for 40 years," and took the opportunity to "make a vigorous and forceful call for the immediate release of the French journalist Frances Roméo Langlois, who is being held captive by the FARC."

The Permanent Representative of Colombia to the OAS, Ambassador Andrés González Díaz, for his part, stressed the importance of the contribution and praised the support and the follow-up shown by the OAS and France in the peace process in Colombia. "This is a particularly significant effort in the work that the OAS has been promoting in support of all the processes of land reclamation and rehabilitation of victims, by touching one of the structural aspects of the conflict in our nation," he said.

Finally, the French Ambassador spoke of the high priority that his country assigns to the Colombian peace process, saying that "peace in Colombia is first of all the responsibility of its citizens, as they were the ones who took the initiative in this reconciliation, and now they are supported by the international community and by the OAS, which is doing a remarkable job."

Ambassador Guignard also said that France wishes to fully participate in this process that “as was demonstrated at the recent Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, shows how Colombia is once again assuming its full place amongst the nations of the hemisphere."

A gallery of photos of the event is available here.

A video of the event is availeable here.

For more information, please visit the OAS Website at www.oas.org.

Reference: E-165/12