FARC chief asks pope’s forgiveness for war pain
BOGOTA: Former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebel leader Rodrigo Londono, now the head of a new political party, has asked for forgiveness from the visiting Pope Francis for the pain and suffering the group inflicted over five decades of war.
As many as 220,000 people were killed and millions displaced during a war that pit the Marxist FARC and other rebel groups against rightwing paramilitaries and government troops.
Thousands became victims of kidnapping, attacks on civilian communities and landmines.
“Your repeated expressions about God’s infinite mercy move me to plead your forgiveness for any tears or pain that we have caused the people of Colombia,” Londono said in an open letter to the pope.
The pontiff has urged forgiveness and reconciliation during a five-day trip to Colombia in the hope of heal- ing wounds left by the conflict.
Londono, who goes by the alias Timochenko, has converted the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia into a political movement known as the Revolutionary Alternative Common Force, preserving the Spanish FARC acronym.
After two days in Bogota, the Argentine pontiff heads to the central city of Villavicencio yesterday, where he met war victims, including survivors of FARC violence and bombings.
He will also visit Medellin and Cartagena today.
The pope will hold a prayer meeting with 6,000 survivors of the conflict and see a destroyed statue of Christ brought from the western province of Choco for his visit to Villavicencio.
The plaster figure, without arms or legs, has become an enduring symbol of the bloody war. — Reuters