From: "Walter Lippmann" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Wed, 30 Jan 2002 23:27:09 +1100 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [CubaNews] Colombian peace talks begin in Cuba Despite Washington's designation of Cuba as a state Washington says is a sponsor of terrorism, Washington's client regime in Colombia travels to Cuba to negotiate a possible peace treaty with one of its two armed revolutionary opposition organizations, the ELN. And not a word of protest out of Washington about this. Notice also two ELN commanders are on "a brief furlough from prison"!!! for these discussions! ======================================== Tuesday January 29 10:26 PM ET Colombian Peace Talks Held in Cuba By VIVIAN SEQUERA, Associated Press Writer HAVANA (AP) - President Fidel Castro was on hand Tuesday as two Colombian rebel commanders on a brief furlough from prison arrived for exploratory peace talks with representatives of the Bogota leadership. ``I am convinced that the country needs peace,'' Castro said of Colombia after a hour-long opening session. ``I salute the fact that they have gathered here,'' he added, declining to comment on proposals that were made during first meeting. Castro was joined by his Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque for the start of discussions among leaders from the National Liberation Army, or ELN, and representatives from Colombian President Andres Pastrana government. Pastrana said earlier Tuesday that if Castro attended the event it ``would be an important gesture'' of support for the peace process. Cuba in past decades had backed armed rebel movements across the Americas and in other parts of the world. Colombia's ELN was among groups in the Western Hemisphere inspired by Castro's 1959 revolution. But communist Cuba ended its aid to insurgent groups in 1992 and in recent years Castro has supported peace efforts between the Colombian government and the country's two major rebel groups. The military leaders of Colombia's second-largest rebel group, the National Liberation Army, said they did not expect major accords to result from the three days of talks. But they said the meeting might lead to more substantial negotiations. ``We hope to make a solid step toward continuing the process over time,'' said Felipe Torres, a commander and negotiator for the 5,000-member insurgency, known as the ELN. Torres and fellow rebel leader Francisco Galan arrived Tuesday afternoon after obtaining official permission - for the fifth time - to leave a Colombian prison to participate in peace talks outside of the country. The only alternative to talking ``is more war,'' said Antonio Navarro, an independent lawmaker traveling with about 50 representatives of Colombian labor, business and non-governmental organizations involved in the prickly process since 1998. While hopes were low for significant accords, representatives of civil groups said they would ask the ELN to cut back on armed attacks including the destruction of electrical towers, petroleum lines and other infrastructure. In Bogota, an ELN commander said in a television interview the group would free the last hostage from a group of nine people it kidnapped in June 1999. The commander did not say when the ELN would free Boris Rodriguez, who has been held for 31 months. Earlier in January, government negotiations nearly broke down with a separate guerrilla group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. The 16,000-member force known as the FARC is Colombia's largest rebel organization. United Nations peace envoy James LeMoyne, who played a key role in negotiations with the FARC, was expected to attend the talks in Havana. Roughly 3,500 people die every year in Colombia's 38-year war, which pits the two rebel groups against the government and an illegal right-wing paramilitary force. ==================== Colombia, ELN Rebels Open Peace Talks in Havana Tue Jan 29,11:32 PM ET By Isabel Garcia-Zarza HAVANA (Reuters) - With Cuban President Fidel Castro looking on, the Colombian government reopened formal talks with the country's second-largest rebel army, the ELN, in Cuba on Tuesday. The three-day meeting follows a December 2001 accord in which the National Liberation Army -- known by its Spanish initials ELN -- and the government agreed to resume talks after a five-month breakdown and begin discussions on a cease-fire. "We are here because we continue believing in peace. Because we insist that it is our obligation, our only way out to continue betting on it," the government's chief peace envoy, Camilo Gomez, said upon opening what is being called a "peace summit". The ELN was founded in the early 1960s by radical middle- class youths inspired by President Fidel Castro's Cuban revolution. The rebel group's 5,000 troops are still capable of inflicting damage on the Andean nation's electric and oil infrastructure with bombing campaigns, though military losses have reduced it to a poorly-equipped ragtag army that experts say is facing extinction. Colombian President Andres Pastrana suspended negotiations with the ELN in August, saying it was not serious about peace. But following contacts in November, and a meeting in December, the two sides agreed to return to talks in Cuba. "The ELN is convinced the actors seeking peace must achieve concrete results for the country. We can not keep raising false expectations," ELN Spokesman Ramiro Vargas said. "We hope we encounter the real possibility of the road of peace," he added. Around a hundred representatives from nongovernmental organizations and representatives from the "Group of Friendly Countries" -- Cuba, Switzerland, France, Spain and Norway are attending the "peace summit". CASTRO QUIET Castro, dressed in his traditional military uniform, sat quietly through the ceremony opening the talks, which will move to behind closed doors on Wednesday and Thursday. "I'm convinced the country needs peace ... They are the ones that must discuss the issues. If I give an opinion I will not be helping the peace process," Castro told the press after the speeches ended. Under their December accord, the two sides agreed to hold a round of peace forums this year on a five-point agenda that includes land reform, drug trafficking and human rights. "I hope we can make progress on the agenda the ELN and the government agreed to. The important thing is that the agenda allows us to reach agreements," Pastrana said on Monday. Although prospects for an immediate accord seem remote, analysts say President Pastrana has a better chance of eventually reaching a peace deal with the ELN than with the 17,000-member Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, before he steps down in August. The FARC signed a landmark agreement with the government on Jan. 20 to reach a cease-fire deal by April 7. The war between the armed forces and leftist rebels and far-right paramilitary outlaws has claimed 40,000 lives in the past decade. "The difference between the FARC and the ELN is that the ELN is convinced that it cannot win while the FARC still hopes to take power by force," Leon Valencia, a former ELN commander and political commentator, told Reuters. "It is that difference that is going to dictate the two negotiations," he said. _________________________________________________ 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] __________________________________________________
