Pubdate: Tue, 26 Oct 1999
Source: Daily Telegraph (UK)
Copyright: of Telegraph Group Limited 1999
Contact:  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
Author: Jeremy McDermott, Latin America Correspondent

COLOMBIAN MARCHERS CALL FOR END TO CIVIL WAR

MILLIONS of Colombians took to the streets in the country's largest protest
against its 35-year civil war as the latest round of peace talks between
the government and the largest rebel group began.

Peace rallies were held not only in Colombia, but all over the world,
including London. Police said at least two million people marched in the
capital, Bogota. "This is unprecedented. The Colombian peace movement is
starting to gain the upper hand," said Francisco Santos, news editor of the
Bogota daily El Tiempo, who helped plan the marches.

Most of the Bogota protesters were dressed in white and wore green ribbons
symbolising peace. The capital came to a standstill as the No Mas (No More)
movement went on the march.

Despite peace negotiations between the government and the largest rebel
group, the 15,000-strong Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc),
that have continued intermittently since January this year, violence in the
civil conflict has grown and the number of kidnappings is higher than ever,
averaging seven a day.

Colombia is also in its deepest recession for over 50 years, with
unemployment standing at 20 per cent. All these factors have forced
Colombians of all classes and ages to unite against the illegal armies
controlling half of the country to demand a ceasefire and an end to
kidnapping.

As the protesters mobilised, peace negotiations resumed with Farc in Uribe,
a farming town in a southern jungle region demilitarised by the government
last November as a goodwill gesture to encourage the peace talks.

Farc has turned the 16,000- square-mile zone into a virtual Marxist
mini-state and has used it to build up the strength of its military
machine, importing weapons, exporting drugs and holding up to 600 hostages
there out of reach of the security forces.
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