Colombia, FARC Trade Accusations over Deadly Clash
Peace negotiators from the Colombian government and FARC guerrillas traded accusations Monday over a clash that left 11 soldiers dead last week, but vowed to continue the two-year-old peace process.
Also Monday President Juan Manuel Santos was booed by protesters for the second time in as many days over his handling of the peace process.
Demonstrators in Medellin, where the president traveled to attend a meeting with business leaders, blew 'vuvuzela' horns and waved banners as they charged he was not showing enough support for the military.
On Sunday opponents of the peace process interrupted the president with shouts and the blowing of whistles at a tribute in Bogota to soldiers fallen in Latin America's oldest armed conflict.
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) insisted the army provoked the recent clash, which left 11 soldiers and two rebels dead, by laying siege to its fighters, and said the unilateral ceasefire they declared last December was still in force.
But the government's chief negotiator at talks to end the five-decade conflict, Humberto de la Calle, said the FARC had violated their truce.
"The FARC broke their own word, their promise to declare and respect a unilateral ceasefire," he told journalists in Havana, where the talks are being held.
However, he said the government was committed to continuing the peace process.
"Despite everything, despite what some people say, dialogue is the instrument that can end this war in the least painful, least drawn-out and above all the strongest and most lasting manner. Ending the war is more imperative now than ever," he said.
The FARC's chief negotiator, Ivan Marquez, echoed that call.
"We must keep going with these talks. They cannot be broken off for any reason," he said.
But he insisted the nighttime clash in the western rebel bastion of Cauca was the army's fault.
The FARC, which has pledged not to engage in hostilities except in self-defense, denies breaking its unilateral ceasefire.
"You have to understand that sometimes offensive actions are deployed in the course of legitimate self-defense," Marquez said.
"We are maintaining the indefinite, unilateral ceasefire, as long as we are not subjected to a permanent siege by troops."
The incident in Cauca is the worst crisis for the peace process since the FARC captured General Ruben Alzate in November, prompting President Santos to suspend talks until they released him two weeks later.
The clash also left some 20 soldiers wounded, according to the army, which called it an unprovoked attack.
Santos responded to the latest incident by ordering the military to resume air strikes on the guerrillas, which he had suspended in March in recognition of their ceasefire.
The FARC wants the government to commit to a bilateral ceasefire, but Santos has repeatedly refused to do so without a final peace deal.
The Colombian conflict has killed more than 200,000 people and uprooted five million since the Marxist-inspired FARC was founded in 1964.
Source: Agence France Presse
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