Wednesday 5 September 2012

Colombia and guerrillas confirm peace talks

The Colombian state and the communist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) confirmed on 4 September that a "road map" - a General Agreement for the Termination of the Conflict - had been signed for future talks, which many hope would end decades of guerrilla conflict in Colombia. President Juan Manuel Santos said in Bogotá on 4 September that the state would negotiate without repeating the "mistakes" of the past, meaning there would be no demilitarized zones in Colombia as the FARC demanded in previous talks in 2002 and talks would be "without interruptions or intermediaries," CNN reported on 4 September. He said these would broadly be in three phases: an exploratory phase, direct talks, and the implementation of agreements reached, but could not go on indefinitely. The parties were expected to discuss issues including rural development, the disarmament and social reintegration of former guerrillas, an end to drug trafficking by the FARC and compensation for victims of violence, CNN reported. Santos received the immediate support of the last president who sought to negotiate peace, Andrés Pastrana Arango. Pastrana told Colombia's Caracol radio he hoped the FARC would "do as they say," CNN reported. But Colombia's last president, the conservative Álvaro Uribe Vélez deplored that talks could happen before "the criminial activities of terrorism" had ended, Europa Press reported on 5 September. Uribe told Caracol television on 4 September that any legislation to allow FARC members to one day run for parliamentary office was a "slap in the face of democracy." He said the FARC whom he qualified as a drug cartel, would "murder Colombians as they keep talking."

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