From: "Stasi" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [Peoples War] Colombia: Military Reject Meeting With FARC - Xinhua Colombian Military Leaders Reject Meeting With FARC ======================================= Xinhuanet 2002-01-10 09:48:42 BOGOTA, January 9 (Xinhuanet) -- Colombia's top military leadership on Wednesday rejected the proposal from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) for holding a meeting with Manuel Marulanda, founder and leader of the country's largest guerrilla group. "President Andres Pastrana, our supreme commander, has already met twice with Marulanda (May 1999 and February 2001), so we don't see why it's necessary for a senior officer to do it," Gen. Fernando Tapias, commander-in-chief of Colombia's armed forces, told reporters. "An army officer could go to the negotiating table the moment a real willingness for peace is shown, and not just a simple strategy," Gen. Tapias said. Meanwhile, another Army commander, Gen. Jorge Mora also made it clear that as long as he was alive, he would never meet with the guerrillas. "We Colombians' generous gesture in search of peace have constantly been abused by the rebels," he added. The two high-ranking generals issued their statements at a military ceremony in the Caribbean city of Santa Marta after the release of a letter in which the FARC proposed a meeting between their leader Manuel Marulanda and a general of the armed forces. Last week, the government and the FARC started their peace talks aimed at reactivating the stalled peace process. The talks had been deadlocked since mid-October due to the intransigent positions of the two sides on the military checks and border restrictions in the rebel-controlled demilitarized zone in southern Colombia. Little progress, however, was made at the talks amid a bitter dispute over government military controls over the 42,000-square- kilometer territory, which President Pastrana ceded to the rebels in 1998 to promote the peace process. The Pastrana administration has tried unsuccessfully for years to negotiate peace with the 16,500-strong FARC, in a bid to end a 38-year-old civil war that has claimed some 40,000 lives in the past decade alone. Enditem _________________________________________________ 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] __________________________________________________
