Conflict Escalates in Colombia Despite Peace Efforts

The year 2000 saw an escalation of armed conflicts in Colombia despite peace efforts by President Andres Pastrana, and Colombians' hopes for peace in the year were dashed.

In his bid to end the decade-long civil war plaguing Colombia, President Pastrana sought to make peace with the country's strongest guerrilla group the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) two years ago.

Peace talks between the government and the FARC were thus held in the southern neutral zone, kindling the hope of peace in the heart of the Colombian people.

But as violent conflicts of jigsaw pattern among the guerrilla groups the FARC and the second largest National Liberation Army (ELN), the government and the paramilitary United Self-Defenses of Colombia (AUC), have spread from rural areas to cities, their forlorn expectations went out.

Floundering ahead, the peace process was deadlocked again on November 14 when the FARC unilaterally suspended talks under the pretext that the government was not decisively fighting against the paramilitary groups.

The rebel group reiterated its stance on Wednesday during a meeting with High Commissioner for Peace Camilo Gomez that there would not be truce or resumption of negotiations if the government failed to adopt a firm attitude towards the paramilitary.

Featuring killings and kidnappings of statesmen and guerrillas, the AUC kidnapped in October seven congressmen of the opposition liberal party, demanding the government start negotiations with it on the basis of a government-FARC agreement.

The paramilitary group rejected the accord reached in Havana in June between the government and the guerrillas on "humanitarian exchange" of 10 sick prisoners from each side.

The agreement opened possibilities for the release of nearly 500 soldiers and policemen in exchange for an equal number of guerrillas. The ELN released 42 policemen and soldiers on December 24, and another three on December 28.

The three groups, with a total manpower of 25,000 covering three-fourths of the country's territory, have fought against each other not only for territorial control, but also for the grasp of illegal crops.

Clashes between the FARC and the AUC in 2000 culminated in the southern state of Putumayo bordering Ecuador, where the guerrillas isolated the region's population of 350,000 inhabitants for more than two months, forcing hundreds of people to flee to Ecuador.

Pledging to combat drugs in the country, Pastrana was set to put into effect a controversial anti-drug strategy Plan Colombia with the military and economic support of the United States, worth 1.3 billion US dollars.

The initiative will start with the mass destruction of Putumayo's illegal crops 50 percent of the 120,000 hectares of Colombia's illegal crops, authorities said.

But the plan triggered protest from the FARC, skepticism from all sectors of Colombia and worries from its neighboring nations such as Brazil, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru and Panama. These countries feared that Colombia's troubles will spill over onto their territories.

The plan's social consequences and effects on the peace efforts are likely to emerge next year, some observers said.






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