- Title: COLOMBIA-PEACE Colombia peace process now at lowest ebb - government
- Date: 5th July 2015
- Summary: HAVANA, CUBA (RECENT) (REUTERS) FARC (REVOLUTIONARY ARMED FORCES OF COLUMBIA) DELEGATION ENTERING PEACE TALKS FARC COAT OF ARMS HAVANA, CUBA (RECENT) (MUTE) (REUTERS) COLOMBIAN GOVERNMENT DELEGATION ARRIVAL
- Embargoed: 20th July 2015 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Colombia
- Country: Colombia
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVA6TRR8MZSSFSB88WLVS25JFK1K
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: EDIT CONTAINS MATERIAL THAT WAS ORIGINALLY 4:3
Colombia's peace negotiations with leftist FARC rebels have hit a critical low as the group steps up violent attacks and the government could walk away from the process unless the group shows more commitment, the government's top negotiator said.
The government has been in the Cuba-hosted talks with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, since late 2012 to end the 50-year civil war. Deals have been reached on most of the agenda, but the peace process is now under unprecedented strain.
"It must be said that the people's reaction of having skepticism (of the peace talks) is absolutely logical. We also have to be honest and tell the Colombian people that the peace process is at a bad moment, maybe its worst moment since we began talks," Humberto De la Calle told local journalist and writer Juan Gossain, in an interview distributed to the press.
The FARC unleashed a wave of bomb attacks on oil pipelines in recent weeks, rupturing them close to rivers and causing an environmental disaster that is expected to take two decades to clean up and has already reached the Pacific coastline.
Optimism that had grown over the peace talks, boosted by the FARC's agreement to clear landmines, was shattered after the FARC ambushed and killed 11 soldiers in the southwest in April. That led the government to resume air raids of FARC jungle bases, in turn prompting the rebels to abandon a unilateral ceasefire.
De la Calle said the talks are entering unknown territory and risk being scrapped altogether.
"I am not capable of giving a deadline (for the negotiations). That's the million dollar question. It's never possible to give a response in these circumstances. What appears clear to me is that the process is arriving at its end, whether for a good resolution or for a bad end (and the accords are scrapped). We are truly working on the outstanding issues. But the patience of the Colombian people could become exhausted, and the risk that this is shut down is real. I do want to tell the FARC, in all seriousness, this could end. Some day, it's probable that they won't find us around the table in Havana. What's happening is truly unbearable for Colombians," he said.
The FARC's insistence that the government agree to a bilateral ceasefire even while its negotiators flatly reject the idea that some members serve jail time for the group's worst crimes, has also caused a rift in the negotiations and dimmed prospects for a deal.
De la Calle said the government was prepared to consider a bilateral ceasefire before a deal is signed if the FARC accepts judicial responsibility for the violence it has perpetrated and only if it also abstains from extortion and the drug trade.
"We are open to a serious, bilateral and definitive ceasefire, even before the peace accords, and when we have the peace guarantees, the taking of responsibility on judicial matters and national and international verification matters so that this doesn't become something of a joke."
In a conciliatory move on Friday, the FARC leadership in Havana said they were seeking to "de-escalate" the conflict after weeks of attacks in which several army troops and police were killed. The group's numbers are falling and all-out war is no longer seen as a realistic option.
Even if the peace process survives, its biggest obstacle may prove a skeptical Colombian public which will approve or reject any peace deal in a referendum. Public support has faded as talks drag on. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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