Reuters (with additional material by AFP and BBC). 19 January 2002. Colombian Rebels Face Ultimatum, Mull Cease - Fire.
LOS POZOS -- Facing a Sunday ultimatum, Colombia's Marxist FARC guerrillas met government negotiators to hammer out a timetable for a cease-fire even as 22 people died in army-rebel clashes. On Saturday, foreign diplomats met FARC senior commanders and government envoys at athatch-roofed hut deep in the jungle-and-savanna FARC territory. The government's peace envoy Camilo Gomez said the government had not received any rebel proposal on a cease-fire. "We hope we can settle things today (Saturday). Time is running out," Gomez told reporters in the remote jungle hamlet of Los Pozos. Earlier on Saturday, FARC rebels killed four soldiers during an ambush to a military vehicle near the southwestern city of Cali. In a separate attack, guerrillas killed 10 soldiers in clashes also near Cali, Colombia's second-largest city, an army spokesman told Reuters. Four FARC rebels were also killed in skirmishes with the army in southern and northeastern Colombia. Political analysts say a bilateral cease-fire agreement would boost tortuous talks that have been marked by deep-rooted mistrust and mutual recriminations from both sides. A cease-fire also would allow the two sides to concentrate on a peace agenda. To date, there has been no agreement on a single issue of a 12-point negotiating agenda, which includes land reform and redistribution of wealth. According to the Bogota daily El Tiempo, a key stumbling point is what each side considers a ceasefire. For rebels it means that its forces, spread out around the country, would remain in place. The government, however, wants all the FARC rebels to be concentrated in one area, presumably in the Switzerland-sized southern Colombia zone they have controlled since 1998. Other FARC demands include swapping the roughly 50 soldiers and police officers they are holding for their own imprisoned members, a halt to extraditing Colombians abroad to face criminal charges and unemployment payment for ex-guerillas. Reports say that government troops and armour are now deployed in force close to the haven "They talk about peace but on Wednesday we'll blow them away," one soldier told the French news agency AFP near the town of Florencia. The BBC's Jeremy McDermott says the rebels appear to be playing a new game of brinkmanship but they feel they are being bullied by the government and threatened by the United States. President Pastrana, for his part, has only seven months of his administration left and may feel he has nothing to lose. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews
