Nobel Peace Prize winner and former archbishop Desmond Tutu on Saturday offered to enlist the South African government’s help in Colombia’s peace process by asking Cape Town to invite rebel leaders for talks.
The initiative was cautiously welcomed by Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, who spoke along with Tutu at an event in Cali.
”Allow me to respond to your request for international assistance” with potential peace talks with guerrillas, Tutu said.
”We will ask our president to invite Colombian rebel leaders to South Africa” for talks, Tutu told Uribe.
Uribe replied: ”I am concerned that when the guerrilla leaders leave for South Africa, the ones who stay behind in Colombia will keep on killing.”
He said that ”for the trip to be credible and not just a whim … all violent acts here must cease” at that time.
A day earlier, Tutu, who won the Nobel prize in 1984, recalled the South Africa of apartheid, saying it had been a ”pigmentocracy” filled with resentment, hate and rage.
Speaking during a conference in Cali’s Roman Catholic Javieriana University held jointly with writer Jose Ramos Horta, a 1996 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Tutu said it was important to find solutions acceptable to all, or at least most, people — ”otherwise, negotiations won’t succeed”.
Forgiveness and restoration must be part of the equation, he added.
Colombia is currently examining what type of sentence to impose on rebel fighters who opt to give up their arms and seek peace. The government and some senators will present a bill to Congress this week for debate on the topic. – Sapa-AFP