PARAMILITARIES IN COLOMBIA

That this House welcomes the revised peace agreement reached in Colombia this week between the government of Colombia and the FARC-EP; is alarmed by the rise of paramilitary activity in Colombia since the initial peace agreement was signed at the end of September; notes that the number of people forced to flee their homes to become refuges within their own country is second only to the situation in Syria; pays tribute to the work of The Patriotic March in defending the rights of the vast number of these people and the work it has done to bring peace to Colombia; is shocked that in the space of just 48 hours, three members of the The Patriotic March have been assassinated in Colombia and two more suffered attempts on their lives; calls on the Government to condemn the recent wave of assassinations of political activists and human rights defenders in Colombia; and further calls on the Government to make representations to the government of Colombia to take every measure possible to ensure that the genocide of the 1980s, when nearly 5000 members of the political party the Patriotic Union were murdered after a previous peace agreement was signed, is not about to be repeated.