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Colombia's FARC rebels set conditions for political participation

Colombie - Societe
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels on Wednesday detailed its preconditions for participating in the country's politics.
The guerilla group, now in peace talks with the Colombian government in Cuba's Havana, said such "material conditions" could serve as "guarantees" for political participation.

Among the demands is the creation of "urban councils" composed of members of other local and community councils, with the "main purpose" of "creating and promoting methods of self-governance in each respective region," the report quoted FARC representative Victoria Sandino as saying.

Another is the formation of a "compensation fund" to address social inequalities such as poverty and hunger in areas with levels of poverty higher than the Colombian national average, Sandino said.

"The fund will be allocated to the towns, zones and marginalized neighborhoods that have the highest levels of poverty and misery," said Sandino, adding that the fund could be used to finance "extraordinary measures," such as large-scale nutrition programs, job creation and the regularization of lots and neighborhoods.

The group also proposed setting up a wide-ranging program to promote "political education" in the universities.

On Monday, the Colombian government and the FARC resumed the 13th round of negotiations, discussing the question of the FARC's participation in politics, and negotiators in May reached a consensus on the complex issue of land holdings.

Bogota and the FARC have been holding peace talks since last November on agendas including agrarian reform, the drug trade, compensation to victims and finding ways to end their bloody conflict.

The talks recessed and resumed every few weeks as clashes between the two sides continued.

The FARC, with an estimated 8,000 combatants, is Colombia's oldest and largest leftist insurgent group, and has been fighting the government since 1964.

Bogota estimates that around 600,000 people have been killed, and some 3 million others have been internally displaced by the fighting.

On Tuesday, the guerrilla group for the first time accepted partial responsibility for the thousands of victims of Colombia's nearly 50-year-old insurgency.

The statement was read out by a top FARC negotiator on the sidelines of the peace negotiations in Havana.

The acknowledgement that the FARC bears partial responsibility for the bloodshed came nearly a month after Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos publicly admitted the government was responsible for "serious violations" of human rights during its battle with leftist rebels.