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Colombia's Guerrilla Delivers New Proposal for Peace Process
Representatives of the guerrilla group Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in peace talks with the government of President Andres Pastrana issued on Saturday a new proposal, in order to "save" the virtually stalled peace process.
In a communique, the FARC conditioned the peace process with Pastrana's administration on the eradication of the right-wing paramilitary groups and urged the President to extend the life of the demilitarized zone in south Colombia to August 7, 2002, the end of his tenure.
The Colombia's oldest and largest rebel force also demanded Pastrana to clarify his attitude toward the fact that the U.S. government has put the FARC on the list of terrorist organizations.
FARC's proposal includes five points in which it demands the government to withdraw its troops from the outskirts of the neutral zone, to suspend 40-year-prison sentences ordered by the Attorney General's office on FARC's members.
The third point indicates the three month period set by the government to crack down the paramilitary groups is very short.
In the fourth point, the FARC said if the government suspends surveillance flights at any altitude over the neutral zone and prolongs its life until Pastrana hands over the government to his successor, "we are willing to continue the talks".
Finally, the FARC argued the last three months pointed by Pastrana to extend the life of the neutral zone (until January 20, 2002) should be used by the army "to prove their efficiency in fighting against paramilitarism."
The peace process between the government and the FARC started in January 1999, after Pastrana's government ceded a 42,000-square- kilometer area to the guerrilla in November 1998 in a bid to promote peace in this South American country, where a 37-year-old civil war has claimed some 40,000 lives in the past decade alone.
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