POLITICS-COLOMBIA: Samper Asks Castro to Facilitate Peace Process

By Dalia Acosta Reprint | | Print |

Dalia Acosta

HAVANA, Jun 26 1998 (IPS) - Colombian President Ernesto Samper asked Cuban leader Fidel Castro to act as “facilitator” to the peace talks expected to begin when conservative president-elect Andres Pastrana enters office in Colombia.

Samper, on a visit to Havana, said he was sure Castro “won’t refuse his support and goodwill if he is asked” to collaborate in reaching a political solution to Colombia’s 50-year old armed conflict.

He added that Castro was particularly suitable because he is more familiar with Colombia’s situation than any other Latin American president.

Samper, who reached Havana Wednesday, heads to the Dominican Republic on Saturday. He said that all the questions of bilateral interest were discussed in his meetings with Castro, which totalled around 10 hours, and added that prior to his trip he had “a long and constructive meeting” with Pastrana, who won last Sunday’s elections and enters office in August.

Although he said he was sure he could count on Castro to act as “facilitator” to peace talks in Colombia, Samper added that the Cuban president must reach a personal decision about his possibilities of collaboration, in agreement with Pastrana.

“It is clear that the new government must come up with its own peace initiative, and whether or not it considers a contact group of countries useful,” he said.

“Facilitators” would serve as witnesses to the talks between the government and the insurgents. But the negotiation process must take place between Colombians and according to Colombian playing rules, he stressed.

On Thursday, the National Liberation Army (ELN) expressed its willingness to engage in peace talks, following the lead of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the oldest and largest insurgent group active in the country.

As a condition for dialogue, the two groups demand that the army be withdrawn from five municipalities in southern Colombia.

FARC, the ELN and the Popular Liberation Army (EPL) comprise the Simon Bolivar National Guerrilla Coordinator (CNGB), which has a combined total of close to 20,000 armed combatants.

After Pastrana was elected, he announced that his top priority was to make immediate contacts with the leadership of FARC and the ELN.

“Our first responsibility is to implement a peace policy,” and we will immediately “address the mandate of 10 million Colombians who voted last year in the Citizen Mandate for Peace,” Pastrana said in his victory speech.

Samper said his government could guarantee that since the reestablishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries in 1994, Cuba had not supplied weapons to Colombia’s insurgent groups. “There has been no military relationship between the Cuban government and the guerrilla movements” in Colombia, he declared.

The incumbent president also remarked that the U.S. blockade imposed against Cuba in 1962 “is as obsolete as the guerrillas,” and reiterated that Colombia is opposed to the application of unilateral economic sanctions against any country.