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HAVANA, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- The Colombian government and the country's largest rebel group on Wednesday created a commission here to monitor the implementation of a definitive peace deal due to be signed later this month.
In a joint statement, the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) said the Commission for the Implementation, Follow-Up and Verification of the Final Peace and Resolution of Differences Accord got underway in Havana, which hosted the peace talks over the past four years aimed at ending a half-century conflict between the two sides.
The six-member commission comprises three representatives from the government of Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and three FARC representatives.
The commission's task is expected to take some 10 years to finish, as both sides strive to fulfill the terms of the agreement, which, among other things, commits the government to investing in rural development and the rebels to abandoning armed insurrection.
Both sides also said they met with Colombian and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs), such as the Carter Center founded by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy, which are to form a Special Electoral Mission comprising six experts.
On Aug. 24, the government and the FARC announced in Havana that they finalized a peace agreement to end 52 years of fighting, which had claimed 220,000 lives, left 45,000 people missing and displaced millions of people.
The government and the FARC are set to sign the final peace deal on Sept. 26 in Colombia's northern coastal city of Cartagena.
Colombians will then be given a chance to support or reject the peace agreement in a national referendum on Oct. 2.
