From: Colombian Labor Monitor <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Tue, 15 May 2001 10:48:47 -0500 (CDT)
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: CLM: Daily News 15 May 2001
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COLOMBIAN LABOR MONITOR
www.prairienet.org/clm
Tuesday, 15 May 2001
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* DAILY NEWS *
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XINHUA NEWS AGENCY [China] -- Tuesday, 15 May 2001
Colombian Indians March in Protest of Massacre
DEUTSCHE PRESSE-AGENTUR -- Monday, 14 May 2001
Rebels close to deal to swap sick prisoners
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XINHUA NEWS AGENCY [China]
Tuesday, 15 May 2001
Colombian Indians March in Protest of Massacre
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BOGOTA -- About 4,000 Indians in the southwestern Cauca state started
Monday a five-day march in protest against the massacre of Indians in the
region.
Jesus Maria Aranda, one of the organizers of the protest, said they try to
attract public attention to the violation of human rights in the area.
The Indians are planning to march 331 kilometers from Popayan, capital of
Cauca state, to Cali, capital of the state of Valle del Cauca.
The organizers are expecting 14,000 Indians to join the march en route.
Over the last weeks, many Indians have been killed in the Naya region in
parliamentary insurgencies. A massacre during the Easter week left almost
50 people dead.
Copyright 2001 Xinhua News Agency
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DEUTSCHE PRESSE-AGENTUR
Monday, 14 May 2001
Rebels close to deal to swap sick prisoners
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BOGOTA -- After nearly two years of talks, the Colombian government and
leftist guerrillas are close to an agreement on scaling back fighting and
exchanging sick prisoners, Peace Commissioner Camilo Gomez said in an
interview Monday.
Although a ceasefire was unlikely in the near future, Gomez told news
magazine Semana, an accord was "very near" with the 16,500- strong Armed
Revolutionary Forces of Colombia (FARC), who control much of the southern
part of the Andean nation.
"The (peace) process is alive and has a future," Gomez said. "Like never
before in the country's history, we are close to the first accords."
A week earlier, FARC spokesman Raul Reyes charged that the government had
grown "tired of peace". Now, Gomez said, the FARC had promised that,
depending on the level of negotiations, there will be "events of peace".
Gomez said the government and FARC would soon exchange prisoners who are
ill, but that the ultimate goal was that the rebels release all soldiers
and police they are holding in their jungle camps.
FARC and another smaller leftist guerrilla group, the National Liberation
Army (ELN), have waged a civil war against the Colombian government for
nearly four decades.
Colombian President Andres Pastrana staked his presidency on bringing
peace to the South American country wracked by war, right- wing death
squad attacks and drug-related violence.
In February the government renewed peace talks with the FARC. Pastrana has
also tried to promote a rapprochement with the ELN. But a wave of civilian
killings by right-wing death squads made talks stall and seemed to have
permanently derailed the peace effort.
Leftist guerrillas claim the government has not done enough to stop
right-wing attacks.
In the same interview, Gomez also reiterated the government's stance that
it will not enter into negotiations with the right-wing death squad leader
Carlos Castano.
Gomez said that it will be up to international tribunals to bring Castano
to trial for the "barbaric" actions carried out by his outlaw paramilitary
army that has launched its own war against the guerrillas and civilians it
perceives to be leftist supporters.
"With Castano there is no ideology to discuss. Therefore there is no
possibility whatsoever of any kind of political negotiation," he said.
Copyright 2001 Deutsche Presse-Agentur
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