In Colombia's troubled talks, stopwatch restarts
Sunday is the next deadline in peace negotiations, which resume today.
By Martin Hodgson | Special to The Christian Science Monitor
SAN VICENTE DEL CAGUÁN, COLOMBIA - Everyone, it seemed, was resigned
that peace would elude Colombia yet again - everyone,
that is, but the international community. As negotiators packed their bags,
the Army prepared to retake a vast rebel safe area and the
nation braced for all-out war.
Even as rebel units were abandoning camps and checkpoints - and all but
two of their negotiators had gone - a United Nations envoy and
ambassadors from 10 nations were chasing an agreement into the last possible
hours on Monday, and to everyone's surprise, they found it.
The international community has long been concerned about the wider impacts
of Colombia's grinding, 37-year civil war, which claims 3,500
lives every year. Ninety percent of the world's cocaine is produced here.
The drug trade finances the war, and thrives in the chaos and
anarchy that the war creates.
UN envoy James LeMoyne stepped into the fray on Friday after the warring
parties had all but given up. Meanwhile, representatives from the
10 so-called facilitator countries held a five-hour meeting with President
Andres Pastrana in Bogotá over the weekend and joined Mr.
LeMoyne and the rebel negotiators in Los Pozos on Monday. The 10 nations
include Cuba, Sweden, France, Spain, Italy, Norway, Canada,
Switzerland, Mexico, and Venezuela.
The United States includes the FARC on its list of foreign terrorist organizations,
and it has donated over $1 billion in military aid to help the
Colombian Army confront the narcotics industry, which in part finances
the FARC.
Under the agreement, the FARC agreed to immediately start discussing an
end to their trademark hostilities, including kidnapping, on
which they depend to finance their campaigns. It also gives the parties
until Jan. 20 to discuss a cease-fire agreement and discuss future
control over the Switzerland-size rebel haven.
"We thank Mr. LeMoyne, who has contributed so much to this work for peace,"
said FARC negotiator Paul Reyes, after the agreement was
announced Monday.
LeMoyne stressed that the UN had no peace proposal of its own, but his
intervention may itself strengthen calls for a neutral third party who
can help keep talks on course when the two sides are bogged down in procedural
disputes.
But if by Sunday there are no tangible proofs of the FARC's good faith,
said Mr. Pastrana, the rebels once more will face a military
offensive. "The peace process is only justified if it produces concrete
results - tangible deeds of peace. I know that [the announcement that
talks have resumed] will not make the Colombian people recover their faith
in the FARC's word and willingness for peace. It's up to them to
win back the confidence of the Colombian people," he said in a televised
national address.
After 37 years of war, five days may not seem much time to hammer out a
cease-fire, but analysts agree that the rebels must come up with
some kind of offer.
"The process can't go on as it was, with endless talks about nothing. It
needs to produce concrete agreements," says Daniel Garcia-Peña
of the peace group Planeta Paz. "The process either moves ahead or it dies."
Although negotiations had wobbled many times, the recent crisis was the
closest that the government had come to breaking off the talks,
and many feared that a complete collapse of the process would usher in
an even bloodier phase in Colombia's conflict.
The roots of the deadlock were planted last October, when the FARC left
the negotiating table in protest at stepped-up military controls
around the zone. Apparently stung by the rebel intransigence, Pastrana
gave the FARC 48 hours to leave a vast haven that was handed
over in 1998 as a pre-condition for talks.
FARC commanders said that the ultimatum undid three years of work, and
announced that they were ready to withdraw their troops, ending
the peace process. The guerrillas abandoned their camps within the zone,
while thousands of government soldiers, backed by tanks,
helicopters, and troop carriers advanced toward the region.
"The country knows that if this accord had not been produced, and we had
been obliged to decree the end of the zone, we would have done
so without trembling," said Pastrana.
At the last moment, the president's refusal to cave in forced FARC to back
down. "For the first time, the FARC lost its nerve. They had to
swallow their pride," said peace activist Garcia-Peña.
Talks resume today on one of the thorniest issues: a cessation of hostilities, including kidnapping, extortion, and attacks on infrastructure.
Nonetheless, the revival of talks brought a palpable wave of relief for
inhabitants of the demilitarized zone, who feared that they would be
caught in the crossfire if government forces and right-wing paramilitaries
had returned to the zone.
In San Vicente del Caguán, the largest town in the enclave, Mayor
Nestor Leon Ramirez welcomed the news, but added that the time has
come to include the civilian population in negotiations.
"We've cleaned our house for the party, but we haven't been asked to dance," he said.