CUBA: Colombian government and leftist FARC rebels resume another round of peace negotiations bickering over a government proposal for a referendum on any agreements that would end the conflict

Record ID: 349749

  • Title: CUBA: Colombian government and leftist FARC rebels resume another round of peace negotiations bickering over a government proposal for a referendum on any agreements that would end the conflict
  • Date: 9th September 2013
  • Summary: HAVANA, CUBA (SEPTEMBER 09, 2013) (REUTERS) BANNER THAT READS: "HAVANA, CUBA PEACE TALKS" PHOTOGRAPHER PEACE NEGOTIATORS REPRESENTING THE REVOLUTIONARY ARMED FORCES OF COLOMBIA (FARC) ARRIVING FOR PEACE TALKS CAMERAMAN (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) MEMBER OF FARC NEGOTIATING TEAM, PABLO CATATUMBO, SAYING: "Particularly for the development of the talks, we feel it's urgent to retu
  • Embargoed: 24th September 2013 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Cuba
  • Country: Cuba
  • Topics: Conflict,International Relations,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVABG9YTNWIYTI3O7K21KUVRI58E
  • Story Text: Colombia's peace talks with Marxist FARC rebels resumed on Monday (September 9) with ongoing squabbles regarding a bill proposed by President Juan Manuel Santos that would call a referendum on any agreements that would bring an end to the five-decade conflict.
    The government has spent almost 10 months working through a difficult peace agenda in Cuba with representatives of the FARC, or Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. While some progress has been made, talks have been painstakingly slow and most now see the hoped-for year-end deadline as unlikely.
    Santos wants any agreement reached in Havana to be ratified by popular vote. If the voters do not like the way peace is achieved and how it would impact the nation, the accords would be moot, Santos has said.
    FARC negotiator, Pablo Catatumbo rejected a popular vote or referendum and said they had to stick to the agenda.
    "Particularly for the development of the talks, we feel it's urgent to return to the order of the agenda, dealing with what was agreed upon from the beginning of talks. It's something that neither party is able to change but on occasions has happened in the past with unilateral action taken by the government, such as when unfair mechanisms were set into motion, in terms of a legal framework for peace, which, obviously for us are not valid. Or when the definition of procedures for endorsement (referendum) have been tackled without asking for the opinion of the FARC-EP, which is common knowledge now."
    Catatumbo said they had invited a group of senators to discuss the popular vote.
    "We are awaiting the visit from the commission of senators, representatives of the Senate and leaders of political parties, among which, it has been said, will include the martyrised Patriotic Union. By invitation of the FARC those mentioned will come to the dialogue venue to deal with topics related to the mechanisms of endorsement (referendum) in question and aspects regarding the second point on the agenda, whose study is pending which could include everything alluding to the statute of the opposition."
    Catatumbo recalled the rebel group's petition for the immediate creation of a special commission to investigate the causes of the internal strife.
    "If we really want all the victims of the conflict to be heard, without making utilitarian and demonizing use of forgiveness and foreign pain. Until when will the government delay the conformation of the review and clearing up commission to search for the truth in the history of the internal Colombian conflict, the FARC-EP has asked for? The war, which began in 1964 and led to as many as 200,000 deaths, has pit the FARC and a smaller rebel group, the ELN, against government troops and illegal paramilitary death squads.
    The FARC has sought to overthrow a dozen governments since it began as an agrarian struggle against rural inequality. Even while it has been severely weakened in the past 10 years by a heavy U.S.-backed offensive, the leftist guerrilla movement remains a formidable threat to the government and civilian population.
    The official agenda includes rebel participation in politics, an end to the conflict, how to eliminate the drug trade, reparations for victims and agrarian reform - on which the two sides have reached partial accord.
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