Colombians disagree about rebels' peace offer
In this story: June 20, 1997
Web posted at: 11:02 p.m. EDT (0302 GMT)BOGOTA (CNN) -- Political and military leaders in Bogota still disagree about a peace offer made recently by leftist guerrillas.
Some civilian leaders and officials, perhaps mindful that the leftist rebels have been at war with the government for more than 30 years, think the initiative is worth exploring.
But the nation's army chief, Gen. Harold Bedoya , is adamantly, even violently opposed. And the rebels say if their offer is refused, they will turn up the heat.
The peace offer was made last weekend by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Latin America's largest and oldest guerrilla group.
With the offer came last Sunday's release of 70 government soldiers. Sixty of them were captured when the FARC raided a remote military outpost last August. The rest were captured five months ago.
In exchange for peace, the rebels want the government to agree to demilitarize four municipalities, turn the army from an internal security force into a border patrol and dismantle civilian self-defense organizations.
President, business leaders encouraged
President Ernesto Samper says he senses a "new will for peace" on the part of the rebels. He got further encouragement when the leaders of the country's four top industrial groups sent him a letter urging him to do everything possible to start peace talks and end the war.
But Bedoya, who says he'll run for president if asked, warns that a "peace syndrome" is infecting the country.
Calling the FARC "a terrorist and drug trafficking monstrosity," Bedoya said "only an ostrich that is deaf, dumb and blind and with no sense of smell" could fail to see that the rebels must be defeated in battle.
Bedoya was also infuriated that the government took the unprecedented step of demilitarizing a vast area of national territory in exchange for the prisoners' release.
When asked what his reply would be if Samper ordered him to attend bargaining sessions with the FARC, Bedoya said, "As soldiers, we have a very specific task under the constitution. No one has ever told us that our functions include entering into talks with anyone."
General calls rebels 'delinquents'
"What I propose to the Colombian people," said Bedoya, "is that we join together, because the time has come for us to unite and defeat these delinquents."
The rebels issued a warning of their own this week, namely that hostage-taking, as they have done recently, is only one of several means they have available to them to escalate the war.
"One begins with small things and works up," says Joaquin Gomez, the FARC's Southern Block commander. "The attack (in which the soldiers were captured) has opened the door to attacks on much larger military targets, though that doesn't mean we will ignore the little ones."
For that matter, Gomez says, it may be that his movement and the government don't even speak the same language when it comes to the word "peace."
"In a class society, a single word can have two meanings, depending on which class uses it," Gomez says. "For the ruling class, peace means the ability to continue enjoying what they have, and to continue exploiting the people.
"But for us, our understanding of peace is social justice."
The government and the rebels may find that defining the word "peace" could prove far more difficult than coming to terms on a hostage release.
Reporter Neil Curry and Reuters contributed to this report.
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