Separate Peace Talks for Colombia's ELN and FARC Rebels
Colombia's two top rebel groups, the ELN and the FARC, will hold separate peace talks with the government, the ELN said Monday, as the sides aim to end decades of conflict.
The National Liberation Army (ELN), said its negotiations will be held parallel to the ongoing talks between the government and the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
"Our slogan is to have two processes with a single goal," the ELN said in a statement.
The ELN and the government have been in preliminary talks in recent months, which rebels leader, Nicolas Rodriguez Bautista, nicknamed "Gabino," said on Sunday had been constructive.
The government has been negotiating with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or the FARC, since November 2012, and has reached agreements on three of the six items on their agenda.
Meanwhile, Colombia said Monday it received a $100 million loan from the German Development Bank to "fund projects for prevention, protection, support and redress for victims" in the post-conflict nation.
The ELN, believed to have some 2,500 fighters, has been active for 48 years, although it has often been overshadowed by the much larger FARC group.
Five decades of fighting between government troops and various guerrilla groups conflict have killed 220,000 people and caused more than five million to flee their homes.
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos has made peace deals with the rebel groups his top political priority.
Source: Agence France Presse
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