COLOMBIA: ‘Exploratory’ Meetings with Rebels Could Lead to Peace Talks

By Patricia Grogg Reprint | | Print |

Patricia Grogg*

HAVANA, Dec 15 2005 (IPS) - Representatives of the Colombian government and the insurgent National Liberation Army (ELN), set to begin preliminary talks Friday in the Cuban capital, will first have to face the challenge of listening to each other, in order to pave the way for eventual peace negotiations.

The ELN, the second-largest leftist rebel group in Colombia after the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), will be represented by the organisation’s second-in-command, Antonio García, who is widely seen as its most hard-line leader.

The delegation sent to Havana by the right-wing administration of President Alvaro Uribe is headed by High Peace Commissioner Luis Carlos Restrepo.

The exploratory talks, to run through Dec. 22, will be closely observed by diplomats from Switzerland, Norway and Spain, countries that are acting as facilitators in the preliminary process.

The Cuban state press has not reported on the meetings. Nor have the authorities in this socialist Caribbean island nation made any statement on the talks, which will begin with a public ceremony in an as-yet unspecified location in the capital.

In brief remarks to several foreign media outlets, a source close to the meetings merely said they would be held with an open agenda, and that the hope was to reach a commitment to continue the process.

But diplomats say the Colombian government will insist on a ceasefire, while the guerrillas will put an emphasis on the underlying socioeconomic problems that led the leftist insurgents to take up arms four decades ago.

“The main aim at the negotiating table will be to reach agreement on a ceasefire, as a commitment by the ELN to facilitate the start of a process of dialogue, and on reciprocity by the government to suspend military operations against that group,” Restrepo announced last month.

The ELN, meanwhile, stated in a “declaration of principles” this month that “to continue denying the existence of the armed conflict and its historic, economic, social and armed characteristics throws a wrench into the gears of a negotiated solution and condemns the dialogue to failure from the very start.”

The rebels were referring to Uribe’s refusal to acknowledge that Colombia is in the midst of an armed conflict, and his insistence on referring to the guerrilla groups simply as “terrorists”.

In the view of the ELN, the exploratory talks “must tackle the reality in the country: the problems of social injustice and poverty, state terrorism, lack of democracy and loss of national sovereignty, which are, among other things, the causes of the conflict.”

The ELN is pushing for a nationalist policy with respect to natural resources like oil, natural gas and coal, and the group’s analysis on such matters has been backed by prominent figures like former Liberal Party candidate Luis Carlos Galán, before he was assassinated in 1989.

The 5,000-strong ELN and the FARC – whose estimated 18,000 members operate in roughly half of the national territory – were both founded in 1964, but have different origins.

The FARC, which has deep roots in peasant struggles going back to the 1940s, was formally created by the Communist Party, while the ELN was inspired by the Cuban revolution and Roman Catholic liberation theology, and many of its members are urban intellectuals.

The ELN admits that a large part of its funds come from kidnapping. But unlike the FARC and the right-wing paramilitary groups, it is not involved in the drug trade.

Also active in Colombia’s decades-long civil war are death squads with close ties to drug traffickers, which in the 1990s joined together in the United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC), the paramilitary umbrella group currently involved in demobilisation negotiations with the government.

The United Nations and leading human rights watchdogs like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch blame AUC for the great majority of atrocities committed in Colombia’s armed conflict.

Ahead of the Havana meetings, the ELN invited the international humanitarian organisation Geneva Call to engage in dialogue with García on the problem of landmines.

“This is an opportunity to advance towards a solution for the humanitarian crisis generated by anti-personnel landmines in Colombia,” said Geneva Call delegate Mehmet Balci.

As part of the preparations for the meetings, ELN spokesman Francisco Galán met with the five-member commission of Colombian facilitators of the preliminary talks: economist and industrialist Moritz Akerman; the coordinator of the Colombian Campaign against Landmines, Álvaro Jiménez; university vice rector Alejo Vargas; former high commissioner for peace Daniel García Peña, who heads the non-governmental organisation Planet Peace; and civil society representative Gustavo Ruiz.

The commission promoted the creation of the Casa de Paz or “House of Peace”, an initiative that facilitated a process of “consultations” between the ELN and sectors of Colombian society, while serving as a meeting-point between Galán and Restrepo.

The Uribe administration released Galán from prison for three months – which ended Monday – to allow him to visit the Casa de Paz and head up the meetings with civil society and the government peace commissioner.

According to Akerman, the coordinator of the Casa de Paz, a broad range of social and political sectors took part in the meetings, to work towards bringing about peace talks between the ELN and the government.

The “consultations” culminated in a proposal for exploratory talks abroad mediated by international facilitators.

The commission of Colombian facilitators wants the meetings in Havana to agree on the conditions and a verification mechanism for a ceasefire, and to establish a framework and agenda for peace talks.

At stake, said Akerman, are “the lives of Colombians, the deepening of our democracy, and the creation of conditions favourable to overcoming poverty and exclusion.”

In January 2002, representatives of the ELN, the government of then president Andrés Pastrana and civil society, as well as delegates from the international community, took part in a “peace summit” in Havana.

The meeting was held in the convention centre in the Cuban capital, and was closely followed by Cuban President Fidel Castro, whose 1959 revolution inspired a number of insurgent groups in Latin America since the 1960s, including the ELN.

During the 2002 peace summit, the Pastrana administration reportedly proposed a peace process based on a declaration of a ceasefire by the ELN and the organisation of a “national convention”, in which all sectors of national opinion would participate, including social organisations, political parties, trade unions, the Church and academics.

But in December 2002, the ELN unilaterally called off the dialogue, peace commissioner Restrepo noted in his November communiqué.

The start of the preliminary talks with the ELN coincides with President Uribe’s preparations for his campaign for reelection in next year’s elections.

In addition, Uribe agreed Wednesday to pull the armed forces out of a 180 square kilometre area in southwestern Colombia.

The FARC has been demanding the demilitarisation of two municipalities – including the area in question – to facilitate an exchange of around 500 imprisoned guerrillas for 34 members of the army, three U.S. military contractors, and 27 politicians (including former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt) held hostage by the insurgent group.

The proposal for the demilitarisation of the area in southwestern Colombia and the prisoners-for-hostages swap was set forth by a commission made up of France, Switzerland and Spain.

But last week, the FARC accused Uribe of using the commission for electoral ends.

Critics of Uribe maintain that the government’s meetings with the ELN and the decision to agree to a scaled-down demilitarised zone for a prisoners-for-hostages exchange are aimed at bolstering his opinion poll ratings ahead of the elections.

Uribe also needs to gain international support for the “law on justice and peace” passed this year by Congress to serve as a framework for the disarmament of the AUC.

The government insists that the law is to govern the eventual demobilisation of any of the irregular armed groups. But critics say it is tailor-made for the paramilitaries, most of whose leaders are wanted on drug trafficking charges in the United States.

* With additional reporting by Constanza Vieira in Bogotá.