[NOTE: Despite the AP's interpretation of the guerrilla slogans,
the demands are fundamental to the negotiation of a real and lasting peace.
-DG]
In Uribe the FARC lampooned the peace protesters' message, erecting
banners with slogans -including "No More Hunger" and "No More Massacres"-
meant to legitimize their decades-old struggle for greater democracy and
social equality.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Sunday, 25 October 1999
Colombians Mount Anti-War Protests
By Jared Kotler
BOGOTA -- Awakening from a "nightmare of apathy and fear," millions
of Colombians marched Sunday in the largest anti-war protest in nearly
four decades of civil strife as long-awaited peace negotiations began in
a rebel-held town.
Claiming inspiration from such nonviolent crusaders as Mohandas Gandhi
and Martin Luther King Jr., marchers in 15 major cities and dozens of towns
turned out to demand a cease-fire, swift progress in peace talks and an
end to violence against civilians - the principal victims of a war that
has claimed at least 30,000 lives.
Tacking peace ribbons to their lapels, painting their faces in the green-and-white
colors of the budding peace movement and waving small paper flags bearing
the simple slogan "No Mas" - no more - humanity filled main avenues in
Bogota, Medellin and Cali.
"We have awakened from the nightmare of apathy and fear," Francisco
Santos, a key organizer and newspaper editor from one of the country's
most influential families, thundered to a gathering in Bogota's Simon Bolivar
park.
Santos claimed at least 5.2 million people marched nationwide in this
country of 40 million. Police said two million protested in the capital.
Meanwhile, government and guerrilla negotiators convened in Uribe, a
ranching town, to launch formal peace negotiations that have stumbled since
their ceremonious January inauguration.
Armed rebels mingled through the hundreds of people who had gathered
to witness the ceremony involving delegates of President Andres Pastrana's
government and the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC,
the hemisphere's most powerful rebel band.
After rebel negotiator Raul Reyes read a speech railing against U.S.
military aid, a presidential peace envoy said the country faced two possible
futures.
"Either we will destroy ourselves or we will rebuild ourselves," peace
commissioner Victor G. Ricardo told the gathering.
While both sides boast that peace prospects are more promising than
ever, they are also cautioning strongly against expectations of a quick
resolution.
Many Colombians are hoping the anti-war movement - unprecedented in
the South American nation where peace activists have been systematically
killed by extremists - will light a fire under the negotiators' feet.
Bogota marcher Matilde Abril said she had to flee war-torn Casanare
province because guerrillas, right-wing militias and common criminals have
made life there too dangerous. "We don't even go back there anymore ...
not even on vacation," said the 46-year-old social worker.
The civic protests come amid an escalation in violence that dampened
much of the optimism generated by bold moves to forge peace that began
with Pastrana's visit 14 months ago to the jungle hide-out of FARC chieftain
Manuel Marulanda.
The president has been severely criticized for pulling troops from a
Switzerland-sized southern region including Uribe to create a venue for
the talks.
Many Colombians were jolted into action by a surge this year in guerrilla
kidnappings and the August assassination of Jaime Garzon, a beloved comic
and prominent peace advocate.
One Sunday marcher in the capital held a placard with the words: "Liberty
for Flavio Reyes - My Father."
Eduardo Reyes, a university student, hopes leftist rebels will free
his 59-year-old father, one of hundreds of churchgoers abducted by guerillas
at a Roman Catholic Mass in Cali last May.
Not all Colombians, however, were moved.
"To end the violence, you need jobs and education. You can't
change everything with a march," said car-wash employee Henry Pineda, who
worked while others marched.
In a Gallup poll published in Cambio magazine Sunday, just 16 percent
of Colombians said they thought the FARC was truly committed to peace,
and 57 percent advocated a U.S. military intervention against the rebels
if negotiations fail.
U.S. officials say they have no intention of sending troops to Colombia,
which exports 80 percent of the world's cocaine. But Washington is stepping
up military aid to help battle the rebels, who take huge payoffs for protecting
the illegal drug trade.
In Uribe the FARC lampooned the peace protesters' message, erecting
banners with slogans - including "No More Hunger" and "No More Massacres"
- meant to legitimize their decades-old struggle for greater democracy
and social equality.
The rebels, who also passed out T-shirts declaring "No More
Gringo Soldiers," say the country's two-party system does not represent
the poor.
Relatives of some of the roughly 500 soldiers and police the FARC
has captured over the past three years arrived to pressure for the release
of their loved ones.
"We come bearing a terrible cross," said Librada Silva, the teary-eyed
mother of a 27-year-old police officer seized by the FARC during a July
rebel offensive.
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