Colombian president to seek dignified peace for country

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos on Saturday said during a ceremony that he is seeking "dignified" peace for his country and wants to demobilize the rebel group FARC rather than make it surrender. "I am convinced that we have the conditions to achieve peace and it has to be dignified peace for both sides. Nobody is expecting rebels to kneel down and surrender," Santos said at the ceremony held in Yopal city in eastern Colombia. "We are seeking a dignified way out for both parts, to bring an end to the conflicts," he added. All Colombians long for peace of the nation and believe the government has shown goodwill on the negotiating table with the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia), according to Santos. He also called on senior military commanders to intensify actions against the FARC guerilla while negotiating with the group. The FARC, founded in the early 1960s by poor landless farmers, has been fighting for better conditions in rural Colombia. The Colombian government and FARC began peace talks in November 2012 in the Cuban capital of Havana, seeking an agreement that will end the half-century-old armed conflict. The unilateral ceasefire, effective from Dec. 15 to Jan. 15, 2014, was rejected by the government, which said it wanted to maintain military pressure on the rebels to facilitate negotiations.