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[NOTE: These
developments have prompted concerns
about
the possibility of a "mini-coup" in Colombia. -DG] =================================================== Speaking in an interview with local radio, Lloreda went beyond asking Pastrana to back down, saying the territorial concession had triggered ``a lot of concern'' among senior army commanders and friction between the government and military. __________ =================================================== REUTERS Tuesday, 25 May 1999 Colombia Defense Chief Slams Concessions To Rebels -------------------------------------------------- BOGOTA -- Colombia's defense chief stepped up his criticism of government concessions to Marxist rebels Tuesday, and said he was ready to resign if President Andres Pastrana was ``uncomfortable'' about him speaking out in public. The defiant comments by Defense Minister Rodrigo Lloreda, which drew an unsual declaration of support from the army, came a day after he publicly urged Pastrana to reconsider his recent decision to give rebels unlimited control over a swath of national territory the size of Switzerland. Speaking in an interview with local radio, Lloreda went beyond asking Pastrana to back down, saying the territorial concession had triggered ``a lot of concern'' among senior army commanders and friction between the government and military. Openly questioning Pastrana's handling of peace talks with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), he also said the president's tactics had little public support. Asked if the armed forces thought the government had given up too much, in exchange for little or nothing from the FARC, Lloreda said that was the view shared by most Colombians. ``I think there's a large sector of public opinion that has that perception, whether or not it's mistaken, and obviously that takes public support away from a process that needs public backing,'' he said. He conceded that his criticism of the government's handling of the peace process had put him at odds with other officials but added that differences over the peace process went beyond him and affected ``the armed forces in a certain way as well.'' Lloreda's comments drew immediate backing from army commander Gen. Jorge Enrique Mora Rangel, who read a statement on behalf of the entire military high command backing the minister in his showdown with the government. ``We totally identify with the minister of defense because the armed forces, and the army, consider him the best minister we've ever had,'' the statement said. ``A permanent demilitarized zone is inadvisable for the country.'' The FARC, the hemisphere's largest and oldest rebel army, was founded as a pro-Soviet Marxist group in the mid-1960s. Pastrana ordered all troops out of a 16,000-square mile (42,000 square km) area ceded to the rebel group in November, in what was initially billed as a temporary measure to induce it into talks to end a conflict that has taken more than 35,000 lives over the last decade. But Victor Ricardo, Pastrana's high commissioner for peace, announced in a speech Thursday that the demilitarized zone would remain a rebel sanctuary indefinitely, as long as the government continues to hold peace talks with the FARC. Lloreda, who spoke in an interview with Radionet all-news radio, said neither he nor armed forces chief Gen. Fernando Tapias had been consulted about giving rebels unlimited dominion over the area, which is bigger than the U.S. states of Connecticut and New Jersey combined and home to roughly 90,000 civilians. Lloreda, a civilian and respected former newspaper publisher, refused to be pinned down when asked if he would resign if Pastrana insisted on giving the FARC definitive control over the vast tract of jungle and savanna in south and southeast Colombia. But he signaled his readiness to step down, saying: ``If the president is uncomfortable with a minister, the minister obviously has to go.'' The territorial handover -- which comes against the backdrop of recent media reports the FARC was using the zone to hold some of its many kidnap victims hostage, and to forcibly recruit minors into rebel ranks -- is thought to be without precedent in any previous guerrilla war. A poll Tuesday, in Bogota's El Espectador newspaper, showed 71 percent of Colombia's opposed the measure. Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited |
