Conference planned to discuss reforms
By TIM JOHNSON Herald Staff Writer
BOGOTA, Colombia -- In a far-reaching accord reached at a 13th Century convent in Germany on Wednesday, the chiefs of Colombia's second-largest guerrilla group and some of the nation's most prominent civilian leaders set in motion a sweeping peace process.
They agreed to hold a national convention before Oct. 12 to discuss economic and social reforms that may open the door to a permanent cease-fire.
Guerrilla chiefs who signed the accord for the National Liberation Army (ELN) said they are willing to discuss at the convention their practice of kidnappings and devastating bomb attacks on Colombia's 490-mile oil pipeline.
Apparently eager not to be left behind in a flurry of recent peace-building activity, 16 right-wing militia leaders wrote President-elect Andres Pastrana on Wednesday saying that they, too, are willing to set down their weapons ``once the guerrillas do.'' And they said they want to hold their own direct talks with the government.
After the signing of the 21-point peace accord in Mainz, Germany, the 40 business, union, academic and religious leaders who took part in the talks excitedly voiced their hope that long-lasting peace may be achievable after 34 years of bloodshed.
Surpassed expectations
``This surpassed our expectations,'' said Antonio Picon, a member of the National Peace Commission. ``This was really a very cordial meeting in which each of us tried our best to attempt to build a new Colombia.''
``I am totally satisfied,'' said Attorney General Jaime Bernal Cuellar, one of the few members of President Ernesto Samper's lame-duck government to take part.
In addition to three ELN guerrilla chiefs, those taking part included a broad cross-section of Colombia's academic, industrial, commercial and religious elite. Novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez, a Nobel Prize winner who had planned to participate, was unable to attend because of his recent hospitalization for removal of gallstones.
Under the auspices of the German and Colombian Roman Catholic Church, they gathered Sunday in a 13th Century Carmelite convent near Wuerzburg in Bavaria. Participants dubbed Wednesday's agreement the ``Heaven's Gate Accord,'' after the name of the convent.
Search for peace
The accord was the latest in a flurry of activity in search of peace in Colombia, a nation that has been racked by guerrilla war since 1964, leaving more than 35,000 deaths and calamitous damage to the economy.
Pastrana, who takes office Aug. 7, announced last Thursday that he had met in the jungle with two chiefs of the nation's largest insurgency, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), and had agreed to clear security forces out of 16,000 square miles of southern Colombia after he takes office so that formal peace talks can begin.
Pastrana, who is on a pre-inaugural vacation in Europe, followed the German negotiations closely amid reports that he might show up to talk with the ELN leadership.
At a news conference in Mainz, Bernal and the ELN's third-ranking leader, Pablo Beltran, read the 21 points of the Heaven's Gate Accord.
Under the agreement, the ELN condemned ``hostile actions and massacres of civilians,'' and pledged to respect international humanitarian law. The group, which has 3,000 to 5,000 armed members, said it would halt any violence against schools, health clinics, reservoirs, fire stations and power lines.
It agreed to stop the kidnapping of children, the elderly and pregnant women -- although most of the group's abduction targets have been middle-aged men. And it pledged to end all abductions for profit once it finds ``other means'' to raise sufficient funds and as long as it isn't weakened strategically.
Authorities say the FARC and the ELN earn as much as $300 million a year from kidnappings of businessmen, ranchers and others.
No more land mines
ELN leaders also pledged to stop sowing land mines in civilian areas.
In the key provision, the two sides agreed to convoke a national convention to address sweeping issues of social justice, judicial reform, utilization of natural resources and ways to open up Colombia's democracy to greater participation.
``The national convention will occur in Colombian territory, in an area where there is a bilateral cease-fire and where all necessary guarantees will be provided for participants,'' the accord states.
Sabas Pretelt, a key mover in the peace initiative and head of the powerful National Federation of Shop Owners, said the convention may lead to a constituent assembly that will make changes in Colombia's 1991 Constitution.
He said the FARC and a third, tiny guerrilla group, the People's Liberation Army (EPL), would be welcome to participate in the convention as a way to fold separate peace processes together.
In addition to the national convention, the agreement foresees a second ``forum'' to discuss Colombian oil resources, a key point with the ELN, which believes that Colombia, an oil exporter, exploits its crude for the benefit of foreigners.
The ELN is responsible for nearly all of the 532 bombings of the trans-Andean oil pipeline since its construction in 1986. The attacks have triggered calamity, spilling a total of 1.7 million barrels of oil in the Andes and wetlands, according to the state oil concern, Ecopetrol.
Pretelt said the ELN agreed to halt sabotage of the pipeline while the forum takes place.