From: "Walter Lippmann" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [CubaNews] Colombia peace advisor threatened, flees to Cuba Colombia peace advisor threatened, flees to Cuba By Phil Stewart BOGOTA, Colombia, Oct 6 (Reuters) - An advisory committee to Colombian government and FARC rebel peace negotiators lost another member on Saturday after death threats from ultra-right militias prompted him to flee for Cuba. Luis Alberto Pinzon, a left-leaning doctor who had written a report criticizing the outlawed paramilitary fighters, said he would leave his family and request asylum in Havana. "I have received many threats over the Internet, over the telephone. There are enemies of peace that are forcing me to leave the country for my safety," Pinzon told reporters gathered at the Bogota airport. "I am traveling alone. My family is also going into hiding," Pinzon said. The advisory committee, originally formed with four members, has been halved in recent months amid rising tensions over negotiations to end Colombia's 37-year-old guerrilla war. The talks had been pushed to the brink of collapse by the FARC's Sept. 29 killing of former culture minister and popular folk singer Consuelo Araujo, who rebels shot twice in the head. Araujo was also the Attorney General's wife. But in a move likely to salvage talks, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia -- known by its Spanish initials FARC -- agreed late on Friday to stop its infamous roadside kidnappings and begin immediate discussions of a cease-fire Analysts say the FARC concessions should be enough for President Andres Pastrana to continue to allow the rebels to use a demilitarized enclave in the country's south, which the military is barred from entering. The agreement on the zone, which is as big as Switzerland, expires at midnight Tuesday and Pastrana -- under pressure to get tough on the rebels -- had warned he could send in the army. ADVISOR QUIT OVER CEASE-FIRE The once four-member "committee of notables" was created in February as part of a deal to break a deadlock in peace talks between the government and the 17,000-member rebel force. The committee's proposals are nonbinding In the negotiations, the FARC put great emphasis on the need to crack down on illegal paramilitaries, who have killed hundreds of civilians this year in a dirty war against suspected guerrilla collaborators. Both the 17,000 member FARC and the outlawed paramilitary fighters have been branded "terrorist" organizations by the United States. They depend in varying degrees on extortion and "taxing" cocaine revenues to fill war chests. Colombia's conflict has claimed 40,000 lives in a decade. The advisory committee lost its first member, Ana Mercedes Gomez Martinez, in a dispute over committee recommendations for a six-month cease-fire, made public late last month. Gomez, director of conservative newspaper El Colombiano and one of the two advisors picked by the government, quit after reportedly objecting to a tag-on concession which would have effectively "frozen" tactical movements of military troops and FARC rebel fighters during the life span of the agreement. That would allow occupying FARC units to maintain control of small towns in Colombia's war torn countryside -- effectively creating dozens of FARC demilitarized enclaves. The two remaining committee members, approved by the the FARC and the government, are a retired judge and the editor of a Communist magazine. Carlos Lozano -- editor of Communist magazine Voz -- said he has received multiple death threats from paramilitaries. He said he would briefly leave Colombia to attend a journalism conference in Cuba, but would return to Bogota. "I am going to travel abroad but I will be back in a few days to fulfill my obligations to defend (peace efforts)," Lozano said on Saturday. 18:41 10-06-01 ------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------ Courtesy of: The Law Office of Jose Pertierra 1010 Vermont Avenue, NW #620 Washington, DC 20005 202 783 6666 [EMAIL PROTECTED] ------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------ _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
