Colombian leader throws new doubt on peace deadline

Colombia's president said Wednesday he won't sign a "bad deal" just to make peace with the FARC rebels by March 23, the latest indication the two sides will miss their self-imposed deadline.

President Juan Manuel Santos and FARC leader Timoleon Jimenez announced the deadline with much fanfare six months ago, but as the date approaches the guerrillas and now the government have raised doubts about the feasibility of ending the five-decade conflict by then.

"If we haven't reached a good deal by the 23rd, I'm telling the other side we should set another date because I won't meet a deadline with a bad deal," Santos said during a visit to Pereira in western Colombia.

"Let's hope we can sign. The negotiators are in the final stage," added Santos, who has staked his presidency on ending a conflict that has killed more than 260,000 people and uprooted 6.6 million.

Various FARC leaders have also questioned the deadline in recent weeks.

In the clearest indication from the Marxist guerrillas that they are not ready to sign a deal by March 23, their chief negotiator, Ivan Marquez, said a week ago that it was only feasible to conclude a peace accord by the end of 2016.
He accused the government of jeopardizing recent progress by acting "unilaterally," and appeared to reject the existing deadline by saying the rebels were prepared to "agree to a timeline and a roadmap."

The government and the FARC have been holding talks in the Cuban capital Havana since November 2012.

They have made several key advances in recent months, including a landmark deal on post-conflict justice signed on September 23.

That was the day when Santos and Jimenez, dressed in white and shaking hands at their first meeting ever, momentously promised to conclude a final peace accord within six months.

"The time for peace has arrived," Santos said at the signing ceremony.

The deal signed that day appeared to settle one of the thorniest issues of all -- meting out justice for the atrocities that rights groups say have been committed on both sides in the conflict.

But squabbling soon broke out over the details of the deal, which offers an amnesty for all but the most serious offenses and lighter sentences for those who admit to their crimes.

The two sides have signed deals on four of the six agenda items at the talks: justice for victims, land reform, political participation for ex-rebels and fighting the drug trafficking that has fueled the conflict in the world's largest cocaine-producing country.

The unsettled issues are disarmament and how to ratify the final accord.

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which was launched in 1964 in the aftermath of a peasant uprising, has an estimated 7,000 members.

A smaller rebel group, the National Liberation Army (ELN), which is estimated to have 2,500 members, has held preliminary talks with the government, but has yet to join a formal peace process.
Source: AFP