By DPA
Washington : Colombia and Ecuador, in crisis over a cross-border raid by Colombian forces, reached an agreement Wednesday on the draft of a resolution to be presented to the Organization of American States (OAS), the Colombian delegation said.
The proposed text will not include a condemnation of the Colombian raid Saturday on Ecuadorian soil, but will feature an acknowledgement that Colombia violated Ecuadorian territory, the sources said.
The Saturday raid, which claimed the lives of Raul Reyes – second-in-command of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) – and at least 20 other rebels, has provoked tension between Colombia and its neighbours, Ecuador and Venezuela.
The proposed text calls for a meeting of OAS foreign ministers March 17 in Washington.
The resolution draft also establishes the creation of a commission headed by OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza, although it leaves open whether it is to be an “investigative” commission, as Ecuador wanted, or an “exploratory” commission according to Colombia’s wishes.
At Colombia’s request, the draft was also to debate a call to member countries to fulfil their commitments against terrorism in a clear reference to Ecuador and Venezuela, whom Bogota accuses of cooperating with FARC.
Late Tuesday, a 10-hour emergency OAS meeting in Washington was suspended without an agreement. Conflicting parties continued to exchange accusations, as Ecuador and Venezuela further increased the troop strength along their borders with Colombia.
In Brazil, Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa Wednesday called conservative Colombian President Alvaro Uribe a “psychopath,” a day after describing him as the head of a “rogue government”.
At the OAS meeting Tuesday, Colombia accused Ecuador and Venezuela of supporting “FARC terrorists” and stressed its right to self-defence. The representatives of Ecuador, Venezuela and other Latin American countries like Nicaragua, Bolivia and Argentina demanded a condemnation of the “violation of the sovereignty” of Ecuador.
Colombia had strong backing from the US. President George W. Bush Tuesday expressed his country’s support for Uribe and praised his efforts against terrorism, stressing that Colombia could count on the assistance of the US against Venezuela’s “provocative” manoeuvres.
The Colombian Air Force used cluster bombs to attack the Colombian rebel camp on Ecuadorian soil Saturday. Following the bombing, Colombian ground troops entered Ecuador to recover Reyes’ dead body and the rebels’ computers, among other things.
Ecuador and Venezuela broke diplomatic relations with Colombia and sent extra troops to their borders with that country. Venezuela also closed the border to trade.
FARC, founded in 1964, is the oldest and largest rebel group in Colombia, with some 10,000 fighters, and it has been fighting the Colombian state for over 40 years.