By Prensa Latina
Bogota : Colombian President Alvaro Uribe on Friday proposed creating a meeting zone to facilitate an exchange of hostages by the Colombia Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) and guerrillas now imprisoned by the government.
The initiative was a surprise since even until yesterday Uribe kept insisting he would not remove soldiers from a meeting zone for a humanitarian exchange any place Colombia, as FARC had insisted.
However, his proposal today establishes an area of 60 square miles without population or any army or police establishments, and with international observers.
Uribe said the idea came from the Catholic Church, and announced a 100 million dollar fund to reward guerrillas who give up their weapons or deliver people kept by FARC to the Colombian authorities.
The president did not mention two conditions, which were added by Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos. One, was a 30-day time limit on the zone, and the other is FARC’s authorization for the International Red Cross to check the prisoners state of health.
This proposal provoked diverse reactions in Colombia, one of which was the comment by some politicians that on the one hand the government proposes an exchange, and on the other it offers a reward for those who release prisoners without any kind of security.