2nd LD: Colombian gov't, FARC rebels sign historic ceasefire agreement

The Colombian government and FARC guerrilla group on Thursday signed a historic ceasefire agreement, bringing the country's half-century civil war closer to an end.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and top FARC commander Timoleon Jimenez presided over the signing ceremony in Havana, Cuba, which was attended by world dignitaries, including Latin American heads of state and the secretary-general of the United Nations (UN).

"Today is a historic day for Colombia after more than 50 years of deaths and confrontations," Santos said.

"This represents the end of the FARC as an armed group," he added.

The agreement sets up mechanisms for the FARC to disarm and transform to a political party or movement, although the disarmament process will not begin until a definitive peace treaty is signed.

"...(Peace) is no longer a dream. We can feel it in our hands," said Santos, referring to the signed agreement he was handed earlier.

Jimenez, the head of the FARC, stressed the agreement was not a capitulation of the group's demands, but a negotiated settlement.

The agreement, he said, "is not the surrender of the insurgency, but a product of serious dialogue between two forces in conflict for over half a century, with neither able to defeat the other."

Cuban President Raul Castro hailed the agreement as a victory for Colombia, and said it reinforced the concept of Latin America as a zone of peace.

The agreement was reached after nearly four years of peace negotiations in Havana, which hosted the talks, and encouraged the Colombian government and rebels to set aside fighting and adopt peaceful, democratic means of resolving their disputes.

The head of the Colombian government delegation to the talks, Humberto de la Calle, signed on behalf of the government, while his FARC counterpart, Ivan Marquez, signed on behalf of the rebel group.

The agreement was also signed by the representatives of Cuba and Norway, Rodolfo Benitez and Dag Nylander, whose countries served as guarantors of the peace talks, and the presidents of Venezeula and Chile, Nicolas Maduro and Michelle Bachelet, whose countries assisted the talks as accompanying nations.

Benitez and Nylander presented the details of the agreement prior to the signing, including the creation of a tripartite mechanism to monitor its application, composed of the government, FARC and an international group in which the UN and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) will play a key role.

As part of the disarmament process, which is to take no longer than 180 days, the rebels are to hand over their weapons to the UN, which will be used to build three monuments as agreed by all sides.

"Disarming is a technical, traceable and verifiable process." Cuba's Benitez said.

Meanwhile, in Bogota, residents marked the ceasefire and the end to hostilities in colorful ways, including placing a funeral wreath at central Bolivar Square to symbolize the end of the conflict, with a banner that read "Goodbye to the war."

Newspaper headlines also announced "The Final Day of the War."

According to Latin American news network Telesur, Latin America's longest-running civil war claimed 220,000 lives up to 2012, left 25,000 missing and displaced 5.7 million people. Enditem