Colombia peace talks end without major agreement

In this story: Both sides want more talks Demilitarized zone was goal RELATED STORIES, SITES

GENEVA -- Talks among Colombia's second-largest rebel group, the government and civic and religious leaders ended in Geneva on Tuesday with a renewed commitment to peace but no concrete plan on how to move forward.

In a statement at the end of the two-day talks, leaders of Colombia's Cuban-inspired National Liberation Army (ELN), the government's peace commissioner Camilo Gomez and several dozen civic and society leaders conceded that recent bloody clashes in Colombia between the rebels and Colombia's main right-wing paramilitary force had not helped the process.

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The leftist ELN made clear in the Geneva talks that it would not make a general release of hostages it has held for more than a year, because of an outburst of fighting with rightist militias, officials said.

However, the ELN released one of its five hostages Tuesday, apparently for humanitarian reasons, according to the man's wife and the Red Cross.

The freed man, electrical engineer Yesid Gomez, had been ill. "He had to be continually on drugs because he was fainting and had convulsions," said his wife, Gladys Sanchez de Romero. "It's been very difficult."

Four hostages remain in captivity, dating from the April 12, 1999, hijacking by ELN -- Colombia's second-largest leftist guerrilla force -- of an Avianca airliner on a domestic flight.

Both sides want more talks

In the talks that concluded Tuesday, the two sides did not set a date for further talks or a plan of action. But they said they wanted the process to continue.

"We back the peace process that is going forward between the national government and the ELN and the agreements reached so far in the understanding that the path of negotiations is the most beneficial for the society," said a statement read to reporters after the negotiations, which lasted nearly 15 hours.

During the negotiations, the ELN claimed rightist paramilitary groups had attacked one of its strongholds in the northern San Lucas mountains in hopes of sabotaging the Geneva talks.

The government and the ELN asked for international help -- particularly from Switzerland, Norway, France, Cuba and Spain, which attended the peace talks -- to create the environment for more negotiations.

"The most important outcome is exactly this: that the three parties agreed that even in such difficult circumstances they are prepared to continue the peace process," the host of the talks, Switzerland's ambassador to Colombia, Viktor Christen, said.

Demilitarized zone was goal

Some 80 representatives of the government, the ELN, church, business executives, unionists, opposition political leaders, and relatives of those kidnapped by the rebels began their talks in a Geneva hotel on Monday.

The goal was to discuss creation of a troop-free zone in the north for the ELN, like one already in place in the south under the biggest left-wing force, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

The FARC has been holding separate talks with the government.

The 5,000-member ELN was formed in the 1960s by disgruntled peasants, leftist priests and radical students. Nearly wiped out in the 1970s, it rebounded with the help of millions of dollars from kidnappings and blackmail of foreign oil companies.

Colombia's conflict began in 1964, making it the longest-running civil war in Latin America.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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Presidency of the Republic of Colombia
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC)
National Liberation Army (ELN) -- Colombia

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