-Caveat Lector- from - http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020215/ap_to_po/colombia_pea ce_talks_7
Presidential candidates plea for progress in peace talks Fri Feb 15, 5:09 AM ET By SUSANNAH A. NESMITH, Associated Press Writer LOS POZOS, Colombia - Four presidential candidates traveled into guerrilla territory to threaten, cajole and beg rebel and government negotiators to make progress in the peace talks, before it's too late. Government negotiators and rebel leaders responded with their usual demands Thursday, and insisted that an end to the talks would lead to more bloodshed. "Don't dream in Colombia about the guerrillas defeated on the battlefield," FARC commander Andres Paris warned toward the end of the five-hour, nationally televised forum. "That will never happen, never." Presidential candidate Horacio Serpa responded: "You will not take over the country with guns." Many Colombians are fed up with the three-year-old talks which have yielded nothing, while violence has escalated. In a Gallup poll released Thursday, 53 percent said they supported Alvaro Uribe, a hard-line candidate who has vowed to exact concessions from the rebels or end the process. The war has become the principal issue in the campaign for the May presidential elections. Uribe, who did not attend the forum, has won support with his hardline attitude toward the FARC. He said Thursday that the day after he takes office, if elected, he would send troops into a vast rebel safe haven if the rebels don't agree to an immediate cease-fire. President Andres Pastrana granted the Switzerland-sized safe haven in southern Colombia to the FARC three years ago to lure them to the negotiating table. The forum with the candidates was held under a tin-roofed shelter in this village inside the safe haven, a jungle and mountain region dotted with cattle ranches and small subsistence farms. Five rebel leaders attended, dressed in full battle gear, with automatic rifles and camouflage uniforms. The politicians, dressed in short sleeves, faced them around a long table. Despite the sometimes heated atmosphere at the forum, all four candidates said they agreed with the rebels that poverty, unemployment and the illegal right-wing paramilitaries were problems the government had to address. Each promised, if elected, to tackle the country's social inequality. Candidate Ingrid Betancur urged the government to give in to the rebels' demand of subsidies for the unemployed, about 16 percent of the work force. Then she turned to the guerrillas. "What were you thinking when you decided to join the guerrillas?" she asked. "Did you think the guerrillas would be involved in cocaine?" The guerrillas tax drug profits to finance their fight. One of their key demands is the withdrawal of U.S. military personnel here training counterdrug troops. The dlrs 1.3 billion U.S. aid package also includes money for equipment to fight drug trafficking. Paris showed off an M16 rifle and rocket launcher that he said was provided to the Colombian military as part of the U.S. aid package. He didn't say how the rebels obtained the weapon. The rebel and the government responded to the candidates with the same rhetoric they've used throughout the talks. Government negotiator Camilo Gomez insisted on a cease-fire while the rebels demanded help for the poor, an end to the extradition of Colombians to face criminal charges abroad, and a government promise to tackle the illegal right-wing paramilitaries. The prospect of Uribe in the presidency convinced some here that the peace process is at a crucial point, with little time left to make progress. "We've spent three years talking about peace, in the morning, in the afternoon, in the evening, peace, peace, peace," Serpa said. The war has been on for 38 years. 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