Cartagena, Colombia, Dhu-AlHijjah 26, 1437, September 27, 2016, SPA -- Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and FARC Commander Rodrigo Londono Monday signed an agreement to end their 52-year war at a ceremony in Cartagena, Colombia, according to dpa. On stage before a white-clad crowd of more than 2,000 at the city's convention centre, Santos and Londono, known by his nom de guerre Timoshenko, signed the accord, then shook hands to applause. In a symbolic gesture, each signed the 297-page agreement with a pen forged from a recycled bullet and inscribed with the phrase "bullets wrote our past. Education, our future." Among the witnesses to the historic signing were 14 heads of state, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and a host of top diplomats as well as 400 victims of the war and more than 100 guerrillas. Ahead of the ceremony, Santos on Twitter called the signing "a new day for Colombia, a new stage of our history, that of a country of peace." The FARC echoed the sentiment, proclaiming "the war of arms has ended, the debate of ideas has begun." Representatives for both sides finalized the deal August 24 in Havana after nearly four years of negotiations. The treaty includes provisions for political participation by the FARC and transitional justice for war crimes, as well as rural reforms and reintegration of demobilized guerrillas into civilian life. In the next half-year, about 8,000 remaining FARC fighters will relocate to 23 designated regions of Colombia to turn over their arms in a process to be overseen by the United Nations. The European Union announced earlier it would "suspend" FARC from its list of terrorist organizations immediately after the deal is signed, and stands ready to provide 600 million dollars in aid to support Colombia and implement the peace deal. In order to take effect the peace accord must be approved in a national referendum to be held Sunday. Recent polls show more than half of likely voters support the deal. Colombia will soon begin talks with another leftist guerrilla group, the National Liberation Army (ELN). On Monday, Colombia's chief negotiator with the ELN, Frank Pearl, called ELN's declared cease-fire for Sunday's referendum a "good sign." --SPA 03:27 LOCAL TIME 00:27 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/w