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Colombian President Santos, FARC leader head for Cuba ahead of landmark meeting

Xinhua, September 24, 2015 Adjust font size:

The leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Timoleon Jimenez, also known as "Timochenko," arrived in Havana, the Cuban capital, Wednesday for a historic meeting with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos.

Sources within the FARC delegation in Havana also revealed that Cuban President Raul Castro would attend the meeting.

Reports say there will be an announcement on what justice FARC rebels would face under a peace deal to end the 51-year-long war in Colombia.

The Colombian head of state announced at his Twitter account that he would stop off in Cuba on his way to the U.S. for the UN General Assembly, in order to help speed up the negotiations.

Santos is set to arrive in the Cuban capital Wednesday afternoon ahead of the meeting set to begin at 5 p.m. local time. "Peace is near," Santos tweeted.

The meeting is set to revolve around the theme of transitional justice, considered to be one of the most difficult themes facing the peace negotiations. Earlier Wednesday, Colombian senator Roy Barreras, the president of the country's peace commission, stated that Santos' government and the FARC have already agreed on a framework about how the perpetrators of human rights abuses will be punished and how victims should be compensated.

On Sept. 18, the FARC issued a statement expressing their belief that "peace is knocking at the door of Colombia, demanding that armed conflict be seen as a collective memory never to be repeated." Endit