Colombia Issues Int'l Arrest Warrants for FARC Leaders

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, March 10, 2002

Colombia Issues Int'l Arrest Warrants for FARC Leaders

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Colombia's secret police, the Administrative Department of Security (DAS), issued international warrants on Saturday to 179 countries for arresting 14 principal leaders of the rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the country's largest guerrilla group.

"With this step, the FARC leaders are listed as some of the terrorists most wanted in the world," the DAS said in a statement.

The administration of President Andres Pastrana has accused the FARC leadership of terrorism, assassinations, kidnappings, severe injuries and violation of international humanitarian law.

The Colombian government has also offered a hefty reward of up to 500,000 U.S. dollars for any information leading to the arrest of the FARC leaders, alive or dead.

The "black list" includes FARC top leader Manuel Marulanda and other rebel chieftains like Alfonso Cano, Rodrigo Londono, German Briceno, Ovidio Ricardo, Efrain Guzman and Joaquin Gomez.

The Pastrana administration also urged the arrest of former FARC negotiators involved in the now failed peace talks with the government. Their names are Raul Reyes, Simon Trinidad, Joaquin Gomez and Fabian Ramirez, whose legal recognition were annulled on February 20, shortly after President Pastrana broke off the peace talks which started in January 1999.

Violence has since escalated in Colombia, where a 38-year-old guerrilla war had claimed some 40,000 lives in the past decade alone.

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