COLOMBIA: FARC GUERRILLA REPRESENTATIVES HAVE AGAIN MET WITH GOVERNMENT NEGOTIATORS IN COLOMBIAN REBEL-HELD TERROTORY

Record ID: 588586

  • Title: COLOMBIA: FARC GUERRILLA REPRESENTATIVES HAVE AGAIN MET WITH GOVERNMENT NEGOTIATORS IN COLOMBIAN REBEL-HELD TERROTORY
  • Date: 16th January 2002
  • Summary: (U7) LOS POZOS, COLOMBIA (JANUARY 17, 2002) (RCN - NO ACCESS COLOMBIA/INTERNET) 1. SLV OF GOVERNMENT PEACE NEGOTIATOR, CAMILO GOMEZ, ARRIVING TO DISCUSSION TABLE 0.04 2. MCU REVOLUTIONARY ARMED FORCES OF COLOMBIA (FARC) COMMANDER, JUAQUIN GOMEZ, WRITING 0.07 3. SV UNITED NATIONS NEGOTIATOR JAMES LEMOYNE 0.11 4. SV FARC AND GOVERNMENT REPRESENTATIVES AT NEGOTIATING TABLE 0.13 5. MCU OF REPRESENTATIVE AT MEETING 0.17 6. CU OF FARC COMMANDER JUAQUIN GOMEZ 0.20 7. MCU CAMILO GOMEZ READING DOCUMENT 0.22 8. SV FARC COMMANDERS RAUL REYES AND JUAQUIN GOMEZ 0.26 9. SLV OF MEETING 0.29 (U7) GRANADA, COLOMBIA (JANUARY 17, 2002) (RCN - NO ACCESS COLOMBIA/INTERNET) 10. SV/TV COLOMBIAN PRESIDENT ANDRES PASTRANA AT RIBBON CUTTING CEREMONY FOR NEW HIGHWAY (2 SHOTS) 0.37 11. MCU (Spanish) COLOMBIAN PRESIDENT ANDRES PASTRANA SAYING: "We are trying to show that there is a will for peace from both sides and, if there is not, then there will not be negotiations. I have always said you need two to negotiate. That is what I said in my address to the nation. We have lost 94 days for making progress in this issue." 0.56 (U7) PUERTO RICO, COLOMBIA (JANUARY 16, 2002) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 12. SLV/SV/CU OF COLOMBIAN SOLDIERS ON HIGHWAY (5 SHOTS) 1.13 (U7) MEDELLIN, COLOMBIA (JANUARY 17, 2002) (RCN - NO ACCESS COLOMBIA/INTERNET) 13. SLV POLICE WALKING TOWARDS SCENE OF ATTACK 1.17 14. CU CAR BURNING 1.20 15. SV OF POLICE GUARDING AREA 1.23 16. SLV/SV CAR BURNING AND POLICE GUARDING AREA (4 SHOTS) 1.45 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 31st January 2002 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: LOS POZOS; GRANADA; PUERTO RICO AND MEDELLIN, COLOMBIA
  • Country: Colombia
  • Reuters ID: LVA52VXSH3RK6LX869VSJZ94O0N6
  • Story Text: Facing a new deadline for the implementation of a
    ceasefire, FARC guerrilla representatives have again met with
    government negotiators in Colombian rebel-held territory.



    Both the FARC and the Colombian government negotiators
    met in the town of San Vicente del Caguan on Thursday (January
    17).

    The meeting comes three days after a diplomatic effort
    brokered by the United Nations prevented the army from
    storming rebel territory after a second government ultimatum
    to evacuate the area ran out on Monday (January 14).

    Andres Pastrana's administration has now given the
    guerrillas until next Sunday (January 20) to get an agreement.

    "We are trying to show that there is a will for peace from
    both sides and, if there is not, then there will not be
    negotiations," Pastrana said as he opened a new highway in
    Granada.

    For the first time since a rebel climb-down narrowly
    averted an army offensive into the enclave on Monday night,
    government peace negotiator Camilo Gomez sat down with
    commanders from the revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia --
    known by the Spanish initials FARC.

    The meeting, which both sides described as "cordial," took
    place outside the village of Los Pozos deep inside the
    16,000-sq-mile (42,000-sq-km) chunk of jungle and savannah
    that Pastrana gave the rebels to start peace talks in late
    1998.

    U.N. special envoy James LeMoyne, whose diplomacy helped
    avert all-out war, was also there.

    In a dramatic and rare negotiating retreat, the Marxist
    FARC on Monday accepted government demands to start immediate
    talks on setting a timetable for a ceasefire in a war which
    has claimed 40,000 lives in the past decade.

    If they had delayed a few hours longer, President Pastrana
    threatened to order tanks and 12,000 men to sweep across the
    borders of the southern Colombian zone, the size of
    Switzerland, and put a violent end to the failing
    negotiations.

    Pastrana, who had long been dismissed by political rivals
    as a soft touch for the rebels, told the 17,000-strong FARC
    that he would not extend the life of their zone past its
    January 20 expiry date without real progress toward a
    cease-fire.

    But one of the international "facilitators" said it was
    unlikely Pastrana would get a cease-fire in place before he
    steps down after a four-year term in August.

    The 47-year-old president has devoted his term in office
    to striking a deal with the FARC. During the last three years,
    war has continued to rage throughout the country outside the
    safe haven, which the army says the guerrillas have used for
    running a cocaine business and imprisoning hundreds of kidnap
    victims.

    Colombia has asked the United States for permission to use
    resources from the anti-cocaine "Plan Colombia" -- to which
    Washington has contributed more than US$1 billion in mainly
    military aid -- to hit the guerrillas.



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