Colombian rebels break off peace talks

In this story: Government rejects demilitarization Waiting for U.S. certification? 308,000 displaced in 1998 RELATED STORIES, SITES

February 16, 1999
Web posted at: 8:34 p.m. EST (0134 GMT)

BOGOTA, Colombia (CNN) -- Colombia's second-largest rebel group said Tuesday it was suspending talks with the government, throwing the already faltering peace process into deeper confusion.

National Liberation Army (ELN) leader Nicolas Rodriguez said he may even wait until the next government takes office in 2002 before resuming negotiations to end the long-running war.

The larger Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) had already suspended talks with President Andres Pastrana until late April and warned it would pull out altogether if he does not crack down on ultra-right death squads waging a "dirty war" against rebel sympathizers.

Between them, the two guerrilla armies have wrested control of about 40 percent of the national territory in a campaign that has killed more than 35,000 in the past decade. Founded in the early 1960s, they have grown in strength to the point that U.S. officials warned last year that they could take power by force in five years and already threaten regional stability.

Pastrana took office in August with a pledge to make the quest for peace his top priority. The apparent collapse of his centerpiece policy has drawn fresh accusations from the guerrillas and political opponents that the government has no real peace strategy.

Government rejects demilitarization

"Talks with this government are paralyzed. Hopefully we can find a real will for dialogue later in this administration or in the next government," Rodriguez, known by his alias "Gabino," said in an interview with the RCN radio network.

"We don't see any sense in having a fresh meeting just to hear the government reiterate the same position it has already made known," he added.

A day earlier, government peace commissioner Victor Ricardo met the ELN's No. 2, Antonio Garcia, in Caracas in a failed effort to set terms for a first meeting in Colombia between rebels, government officials and civic leaders.

The ELN demanded the government pull out all troops from four municipalities in a war-torn region of northern Bolivar province to allow the so-called National Convention to go ahead. That would mirror concessions the government made in parallel peace talks with the FARC.

But in a communique issued on his return to Bogota on Monday night, Ricardo said there would be no pullout for the ELN and offered only a temporary cease-fire in a single municipality during the convention.

While the two sets of negotiations are "equally important," Ricardo told RCN, "It is not conducive for peace for the insurgent groups to resort to comparisons."

In its negotiations with the FARC, Latin America's oldest and largest rebel force, the government demilitarized a Switzerland-sized region of southeast Colombia for an initial 90 days. The demilitarization has been extended until May 7, but no negotiating agenda has been set; and even though FARC chiefs and the government are due to meet again April 20, there is no guarantee full talks will resume.

Waiting for U.S. certification?

The government's peace policy "is nothing but handing over territory and concessions without end," said former armed forces chief Gen. Harold Bedoya, who would rather try to defeat the guerrillas on the battlefield.

"There's no clear line, no strategy," said Horacio Serpa, head of the opposition Liberal Party, after discussing the peace process with Pastrana.

Some analysts believe the government may be ready to make fresh concessions by demilitarizing more territory -- to breathe new life into the peace process -- once the United States has made its annual decision early in March on which countries to approve as allies in the war on drugs.

The analysts say the government fears it may risk being blacklisted by Washington if it effectively hands over to the rebels vast swaths of countryside where illegal drug crops are rife.

Both U.S. and Colombian officials accuse the FARC, set up as a pro-Soviet force in 1964, and to a lesser extent the ELN of close ties to the drug trade.

If it were decertified, Colombia would face stiff economic sanctions.

308,000 displaced in 1998

The war has had an enormous economic and social cost for Colombia.

Civilians have found themselves in the cross fire in provinces such as oil-rich Arauca, where the ELN routinely bombs oil pipelines and both groups kidnap people to extort money from foreign companies .

A refugee agency reported that more than 500,000 Colombians had fled their homes over the past two years due to violence by the guerrillas, the army and the rightist paramilitary groups.

Jorge Rojas, director of the Consultancy for Human Rights and Displacement, said 308,000 people were displaced in 1998, a 20 percent increase over the 257,000 the previous year. The majority of the displaced flee to large cities already overwhelmed by rapid urbanization.

Like international human rights groups, the guerrillas argue that the paramilitary groups, which now total some 5,000 fighters, are part of an undercover official counterinsurgency backed by the armed forces.

The national alliance of paramilitary gangs, known as the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), massacred more than 140 people in five provinces over four days in January when the government began peace talks with the FARC.

In comments to RCN radio, Rodriguez said the ELN may be prepared to hold its national convention outside Colombia, possibly in Spain, Venezuela or Norway.

But he said in that case the rebels would meet only with religious, business, labor and grass-roots leaders and not with Pastrana or other government officials.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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