Colombian state losing war, calls for truce with FARC
Producer | 30.11.2001 05:23
BOGOTA, Sep 25 (IPS) - A commission designated by the Colombian government for the insurgent Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to coordinate the peace process on Tuesday laid out a plan for a ceasefire, a halt to the indiscriminate fumigation of drug crops and the creation of mechanisms to defend human rights.
The commission presented the proposal, which also calls for an end to right wing paramilitary attacks against the civilian population. The peace negotiating panel meeting will be in San Vicente del Caguán, headquarters of the talks and of the Switzerland-sized demilitarised zone in the Colombian southeast, an area controlled by the FARC.
The commission, whose aim is to facilitate the on-again-off again peace talks, consists of two members named by the FARC and one by the Andrés Pastrana government.
If the proposal is approved, both sides must respect the ceasefire, while the government must try to keep the right-wing paramilitaries - the FARC's main enemies - under control and set up mechanisms for guaranteeing human rights.
For their part, the leftist FARC would be required to abandon the practices of kidnapping and extortion to collect revolutionary taxes from wealthy elites refusing to pay, and to eliminate their unconventional weapons, such as the gas cylinders used as explosive devices, and to stop recruiting minors to their ranks.
Carlos Lozano, one of the three commission members, told IPS that the proposal is an attempt to advance on the agenda for the negotiations that was agreed by both sides nearly two years ago.
Lozano said it is not ''only a truce for 'humanising the war', as the government has proposed in various forums, but rather for resolving the conflict'' that has thrashed the Colombian population for almost four decades.
The commission's report further covers the possibility that the government and the international community could seek ways to finance the insurgent group, which currently obtains its financial resources through kidnapping ransoms and extortion of wealthy elites and by taxing commodities, including coca, in the FARC controlled areas.
The truce is proposed to last six months, with extensions depending on progress made in the 12-point agenda of the representatives on the peace-negotiating panel.
The commission has also suggested that a national constituent assembly should be entrusted with approving the political agreements achieved by the dialogue to ensure that they are considered constitutionally binding.
Additionally, the proposal calls for the ceasefire to include the right-wing United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC) who protect drug barons and wealthy land holders and that the government should set up a system through which these paramilitaries could turn themselves in, similar to the one enacted by the government of César Gaviria (1990-1994) for drug traffickers.
On that occasion, a law was passed that established reduced sentences for drug traffickers who voluntarily turned themselves in to the justice authorities and confessed their crimes.
The paramilitaries were declared illegal in 1998 because of their ties to the drug trade, their implication in the killings of dozens of leftist activists and human rights workers.
The London-based Amnesty International charges that the AUC paramilitaries are responsible for the massacres and human rights abuses that occur in Colombia each year.
Luis Valencia, researcher at the state-run National University, says the commission's recommendations are a valuable tool for helping the government and the FARC revitalise the negotiating process, which had been showing signs of breakdown.
The two sides initiated the peace dialogue in January 1999, three months after Pastrana took office. Now, just one year before the president's term is up, not one of the 12 points on the agenda has been resolved.
The commission's proposal comes less than two weeks before the Pastrana administration must decide on whether to extend the period for maintaining the FARC-controlled demilitarised zone, a requisite of the rebels for participating in the peace talks.
The commission presented the proposal, which also calls for an end to right wing paramilitary attacks against the civilian population. The peace negotiating panel meeting will be in San Vicente del Caguán, headquarters of the talks and of the Switzerland-sized demilitarised zone in the Colombian southeast, an area controlled by the FARC.
The commission, whose aim is to facilitate the on-again-off again peace talks, consists of two members named by the FARC and one by the Andrés Pastrana government.
If the proposal is approved, both sides must respect the ceasefire, while the government must try to keep the right-wing paramilitaries - the FARC's main enemies - under control and set up mechanisms for guaranteeing human rights.
For their part, the leftist FARC would be required to abandon the practices of kidnapping and extortion to collect revolutionary taxes from wealthy elites refusing to pay, and to eliminate their unconventional weapons, such as the gas cylinders used as explosive devices, and to stop recruiting minors to their ranks.
Carlos Lozano, one of the three commission members, told IPS that the proposal is an attempt to advance on the agenda for the negotiations that was agreed by both sides nearly two years ago.
Lozano said it is not ''only a truce for 'humanising the war', as the government has proposed in various forums, but rather for resolving the conflict'' that has thrashed the Colombian population for almost four decades.
The commission's report further covers the possibility that the government and the international community could seek ways to finance the insurgent group, which currently obtains its financial resources through kidnapping ransoms and extortion of wealthy elites and by taxing commodities, including coca, in the FARC controlled areas.
The truce is proposed to last six months, with extensions depending on progress made in the 12-point agenda of the representatives on the peace-negotiating panel.
The commission has also suggested that a national constituent assembly should be entrusted with approving the political agreements achieved by the dialogue to ensure that they are considered constitutionally binding.
Additionally, the proposal calls for the ceasefire to include the right-wing United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC) who protect drug barons and wealthy land holders and that the government should set up a system through which these paramilitaries could turn themselves in, similar to the one enacted by the government of César Gaviria (1990-1994) for drug traffickers.
On that occasion, a law was passed that established reduced sentences for drug traffickers who voluntarily turned themselves in to the justice authorities and confessed their crimes.
The paramilitaries were declared illegal in 1998 because of their ties to the drug trade, their implication in the killings of dozens of leftist activists and human rights workers.
The London-based Amnesty International charges that the AUC paramilitaries are responsible for the massacres and human rights abuses that occur in Colombia each year.
Luis Valencia, researcher at the state-run National University, says the commission's recommendations are a valuable tool for helping the government and the FARC revitalise the negotiating process, which had been showing signs of breakdown.
The two sides initiated the peace dialogue in January 1999, three months after Pastrana took office. Now, just one year before the president's term is up, not one of the 12 points on the agenda has been resolved.
The commission's proposal comes less than two weeks before the Pastrana administration must decide on whether to extend the period for maintaining the FARC-controlled demilitarised zone, a requisite of the rebels for participating in the peace talks.
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