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NEWS
Colombia, Rebels Open Peace Talks in Cuba
By VANESSA ARRINGTON, Associated Press Writer
Fri Dec 16, 8:41 PM ET
HAVANA - Exploratory peace talks between Colombia and its second-largest
rebel group began Friday in Cuba with help from the Nobel Prize-winning
author Gabriel Garcia Marquez and facilitators from Spain, Norway and
Switzerland.
Given the history of failed attempts at peace in Colombia, the nation's
peace commissioner urged all parties involved in the talks to work to
regain the confidence of Colombia's people.
"Our main concern at this time is to gain trust," said Luis Carlos
Restrepo, speaking at the official opening of negotiations. "Colombia
can't take any more setbacks."
Rather than making specific demands, the two sides were meeting to agree
on parameters for future peace talks. Restrepo, who was representing the
Colombian government, promised to be realistic and responsible in talks
with the rebels.
For his part, the representative of the National Liberation Army, or
ELN, promised to listen to the Colombian government's position, but said
the rebels would not accept any superficial solution and called for
large-scale changes in the social, economic and political structure of
the country.
Antonio Garcia, the military commander of the ELN, promised, however,
that his rebel group would not give up easily on peace.
"If the obstacles are big, we'll have to look for support in society,
support in the international community," Garcia told reporters.
The ELN and the larger Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC,
have been battling since 1964 to topple Colombia's government and
establish a Marxist-style state. The 12,000-strong FARC has shunned
peace talks. More than 3,000 Colombians are killed every year in the
conflict among Colombia's government troops, leftist rebels and
right-wing paramilitary fighters.
Several informal talks between the Colombian government and the ELN have
failed since 1998. Earlier this year, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe
accused Garcia of frustrating peace efforts.
"It should make then ashamed if they don't arrive at anything this
time," said Garcia Marquez, talking on the sidelines of the event. The
author did not address the gathering.
Neither side in the talks provided details of their demands. Restrepo
did not mention a ceasefire, and said the Colombian government was open
to more diversity in the political system. Garcia did not speak of any
political aspirations for his group, focusing instead on the need for
all Colombians to have more of a voice in the nation's governing.
When Cuba last hosted Colombia's talks with the ELN, in 2002,
then-President Andres Pastrana pulled out, saying the rebel group was
not interested in peace. Friday's talks mark the Uribe administration's
first formal negotiations with insurgents.
Garcia urged patience this time, warning that the ELN's 41-year war
against the Colombian state would not end overnight.
"Peace is not a moment, it's not an act," Garcia said. "It's a process,
it's the construction of a stage."
Garcia was assisted by ELN spokesman Francisco Galan, a captured ELN
commander whom Uribe temporarily released from prison in September in
hopes he would help nudge his group toward peace, and Ramiro Vargas, an
ELN member living in Cuba.
Cuba serves as a safe zone for Garcia. Usually, the rebel commander
hides out deep in Colombia's mountains and jungles, alternately fighting
and running from Uribe's military. Showing his face back home could mean
immediate arrest, or death in combat.
Garcia Marquez, best known for his novel "One Hundred Years of
Solitude," is a friend of Cuban President Fidel Castro, and both men
have tried in the past to encourage Colombia's guerillas and government
to reach an accord.
The extent of the novelist's participation beyond Friday's opening event
was not immediately clear, but even having his name associated with the
effort makes a difference, the rebel commander said.
___
Associated Press writer Margarita Martinez in Bogota, Colombia
contributed to this report.
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