Uribe Won't Grant Amnesty to Rebels

2.03.07

www.washingtonpost.com

President Alvaro Uribe has ruled out amnesty for leftist rebels under an eventual peace deal, reversing a long-standing blueprint for ending Colombia’s five-decade civil conflict.

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia “should prepare themselves that they are not going to get an amnesty or a pardon for atrocious crimes,” Uribe said as he commemorated Tuesday’s one-year anniversary of the killing of nine town councilmen by the rebels in southern Colombia.

“They must abandon the idea that they are going to come down from the mountains and go straight to Congress or the presidency,” Uribe said.

The 15,000-strong rebel group, known as FARC, had demanded amnesty during three years of failed negotiations with the administration of Uribe’s predecessor. The FARC is also seeking the creation of a national assembly, in which they would have substantial representation.

Uribe’s comments reflect the growing distance between the rebels and Colombia, Washington’s closest ally in South America.

Over the weekend, the government and a smaller leftist group, the National Liberation Army, began a fifth round of talks on a peace agreement.

The government is also trying to pacify far-right paramilitaries. Warlords and more than 31,000 fighters have surrendered under a deal that promises reduced sentences in exchange for confessing to crimes and surrendering ill-gotten gains.

Uribe said any agreement with the FARC would call for the group to pay damages to its victims. The government’s pact with the paramilitaries contains a similar provision.

Political analyst Leon Valencia, a former guerrilla of the M-19 group which received blanket amnesty when it demobilized in 1989, said Uribe’s comments make “any chance of the two sides coming closer almost impossible.”

Uribe was re-elected to a four-year term last year on promises of greater security for the country exhausted by high homicide rates.

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