Govt, rebels scramble to salvage peace deal

Call for inter-party meeting

BOGOTA, Oct 4, (AFP): Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos opened a new national dialogue Monday to seek peace with FARC rebels as both sides scrambled to revive a peace deal to end the half-century conflict.

In a televised address a day after voters rejected the agreement in a referendum, Santos said he had asked the government’s chief negotiator Humberto de la Calle to “begin discussions as soon as possible addressing all the necessary issues to have an agreement and realize the dream of every Colombian to end the war with the FARC.”

De la Calle had earlier offered his resignation, saying he did not want to be “an obstacle to what comes next.”

Monday’s announcement came after Santos — who has staked his legacy on ending the 52-year-old conflict — called an emergency meeting with leaders of the country’s political parties to try to chart a way forward after Sunday’s shock referendum defeat.

As he arrived, a visibly crestfallen Santos said the meeting would seek “common ground and unity.” “That’s more important now than ever,” he said. The leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Rodrigo Londono, meanwhile said in a video from Havana — where the peace talks were held — that the Marxist guerrillas, like the government, remained committed to an ongoing ceasefire.

Londono — better known by the nom de guerre Timoleon “Timochenko” Jimenez — said the rebels were prepared to “fix” the rejected deal.

The result “does not mean the battle for peace is lost,” he said.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who had offered a UN team to oversee the disarmament process, said he had “urgently” sent his Colombia envoy to Havana, where the four-year talks have been held, for new consultations.

But the outcome left no clear path to end a conflict that has claimed more than 260,000 lives and left 45,000 missing.

Opinion polls had showed the “Yes” camp well ahead, and negotiators had said there was no Plan B in the event of a “No” vote.

The peace deal had been hailed as historic from the time it was concluded on Aug 24 to the moment it was signed last week in the presence of Ban and US Secretary of State John Kerry.

But many Colombians resented the blood shed by the Marxist guerrillas and the lenient punishment the deal meted out for their crimes.

Santos