Page 11 - atoday oct 1

WORLD NEWS A11
Thursday 1 October 2015

Colombia rebel leader affirms United Kingdom’s Prime Minister David Cameron speaks at the United Nations. Cameron on
FARC commitment to end war
Wednesday rejected the Caribbean’s push for slavery reparations during his first official visit to
JOSHUA GOODMAN
Associated Press Jamaica. (AP Photo/Kevin Hagen)
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — In a landmark television
interview, the rarely seen leader of the Revolutionary UK PM Cameron provides Caribbean aid,
Armed Forces of Colombia reaffirmed the commit- rejects slavery reparations
ment of Latin America’s oldest insurgency to aban-
don the battlefield even while shying from a six-month HOWARD CAMPBELL In a speech before Jamai- and the genocide of native
deadline to sign a final peace accord. DAVID McFADDEN ca’s Parliament on Wednes- peoples.
Rodrigo Londono said he has always considered him- Associated Press day morning, Cameron said In an open letter to Camer-
self an “enemy” of putting artificial dates on negotia- KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) he believed the Caribbean on, Hilary Beckles, chairman
tions, fearing it could backfire against the rebels if a — U.K. Prime Minister David has emerged from the of the Caribbean Commu-
target is missed. But he said he eventually was per- Cameron on Wednesday “long shadow” of slavery. nity’s Reparations Commis-
suaded to put aside those objections and join Santos rejected the Caribbean’s However, he acknowl- sion and a scholar who has
in making a pledge to reach a final deal by March push for slavery reparations edged that “these wounds written several books on the
because he trusts the president, who he called an during his first official visit to run very deep indeed” history of regional slavery,
“ally of peace.” Jamaica, a once-profitable from the brutal system that said reparations was “not
“If there’s political will, we can do it earlier, but six British colony that became brought riches to Britain and an issue that can be fur-
months may also be too short,” Londono said in his independent just over 50 other colonial powers. ther ignored, remain under
first interview since peace talks began in Cuba three years ago. “But I do hope that, as the rug, or placed on back
years ago. In Jamaica’s capital of friends who have gone burners.”
The interview aired Tuesday night was as significant Kingston, Cameron prom- through so much together Backers of reparations note
for its very existence than any revelations made by ised a roughly $455 million since those darkest of times, that Britain was responsible
the normally secretive Londono, who is better known aid package to upgrade we can move on from this for the forced relocation
by the alias Timochenko. bridges, ports and other in- painful legacy and contin- of millions of Africans via
Until last week, when he shook hands with Presi- frastructure across the Ca- ue to build for the future,” the Atlantic slave trade
dent Juan Manuel Santos in Havana to announce ribbean and reinvigorate he said, and noted that and they say grants and
a breakthrough agreement on the thorny issue of Britain’s relationship with Britain eventually led the ef- trade agreements “are not
punishment for war crimes during a half-century of the region dotted with U.K. fort that abolished the slave replacements for repara-
fighting, the veteran guerrilla commander had been dependencies and former trade in the mid-19th cen- tion.” They also point out
something of a sphinx to Colombians. When he was colonies. He said it would tury. that Cameron’s ancestors
seen at all, it was only in videotaped messages from make the U.K. the largest bi- Jamaica and other Ca- benefited financially from
the jungle battlefield dressed in military fatigues and lateral donor to the region. ribbean governments are slavery.
railing against Colombia’s U.S.-backed “oligarchy.” The British leader said he pushing for reparations Jamaican Prime Minister
But in a speech alongside Santos and again in the wanted to focus on the fu- from Britain and two other Portia Simpson Miller said
interview aired Tuesday with Venezuelan-based net- ture, not historical wrongs, European nations. Cari- she raised the reparations
work Telesur Londono tired to cast a softer image, and the United Kingdom’s com, a political grouping issue with her British counter-
wearing a white guayabera shirt and sporting his longstanding position was of 15 countries and de- part, but Jamaica was also
trademark salt-and-pepper beard neatly groomed. “that we do not believe pendencies, announced focused on the aid pack-
In a heavily edited conversation with a leftist former reparations is the right ap- in 2013 that it intended to age and boosting bilateral
Colombian senator, Piedad Cordoba, Londono remi- proach.” seek reparations for slavery ties.q
nisced romantically about his decision to run off with
the rebels while still a teenager 40 years ago. And he
spoke of a desire to one day return to the coffee-
growing town where he was raised by a peasant
communist father and devout Catholic mother.
Asked if he would ask the FARC’s many victims for
forgiveness, Londono said tactical “errors” in the heat
of battle were made on all sides, but he had nothing
to apologize for.
“Whoever asks for forgiveness it’s because they re-
gret something, and I don’t regret anything,” he said.
Without presenting any proof or details, he said the
FARC early in the peace process had the opportunity
to assassinate Santos but desisted from carrying out
an attack because the group’s then-leader, alias Al-
fonso Cano, was against provoking more bloodshed
while dialogue was underway. Cano was later killed
in a military air attack.q