Carlos Lozano Guillen is the director of Voz (weekly paper of the Colombian Communist party). He has always had good contacts with FARC. Here he offers some worrying and disturbing explanations about the recent diplomatic crisis between France and the Colombian government.

"President Uribe was aware and agreed that contacts would be made between the French envoy and Raul Reyes [FARC-EP], all the time wanting to sabotage them.

The "strong diplomatic protest" sent by the Minister of Justice last week to the French ambassador in Colombia Mme Camille Rohou has certainly put an end to contacts between the French government and Raul Reyes from the FARC-EP, talks aimed at seeking suggestions to be put to the Colombian that could lead to negotiations for a long- awaited humanitarian agreement.

Contrary to the statements of the Colombian Government, president Alvaro uribeVelez had been informed of this: that is what the Minister for the Interior and Justice Sabas Pretelt de la Vega in July 2005 after El Tiempo had revealed the holding of the first meeting this year. Last year there were at least three meetings, all on Colombian soil; and the assistant director of the office of the International Red Cross (CICR) in Bogotá had attended one of these meetings."The Colombian Government was aware of these contacts and they had agreed to them, as well as the contacts made by the Swiss government", stated a French government spokesman to Voz.

The argument of the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Carolina Barco according to which each meeting must be authorised specially is absurd. In any corner of the world where there are internal conflicts - this is the international experience - facilitators, administrative officials, mediators do not operate under such constraints, because that would compromise the effectiveness of contacts and would threaten the lives of personnel involved.

"It is a naive explanation on the part of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carolina Barco because international practice shows that when parties accept the facilitator or the mediator, that presupposes many contacts and meetings for which authorisation is no longer needed," explained an expert in these affairs to Voz. In effect, after the meeting of July 2005, the army had launched a huge operation against Raul Reyes [FARC-EP], perhaps because the "French envoy" had been followed.

France had had permission for contacts and had therefore acted accordingly, constantly coming up against restrictions and obstacles from the Colombian Government. In December 2004, after a meeting with Raul Reyes," the French envoy" and the person who was then assistant Director of the International Committee of the Red Cross (CICR) in Bogotá had been arrested for some minutes and questioned, firstly in Puerto Asis by the Army, then at the El Dorado Airport in Bogotá by the Department of Security Administration (DAS). The timely intervention of the French Ambassador prevented a more serious action taking place.

Returning from the last meeting, three weeks ago, the French envoy was questioned by the DAS at Bogotá airport. The official version, according to which the authorities were not aware of contacts and the name of the 'French envoy" was unknown are therefore false. This seems to have worried the government, following the suggestion of (talks) at BoloAzul that had never been made to FARC but revealed publicly through the media, that the "French Envoy" was in the process of putting forward a joint proposal with FARC that would be presented to President Alvaro Uribe. "There was nothing specific, but we were in the process of formulating several proposals that would have had to be firstly analysed by the Secretariat [Chief of staff of FARC-EP], then presented by the Frenchman to the Colombian giovernment", a FARC-EP source told Voz.

The " protest by the Colombian government " removes any possibility of progress achieved by France and practically guarantees the failure of all that has been built up. "They were useful because otherwise France would have wasted its time " declared Voz to a French spokesman. It was not only a question of proof of life [of those held hostage] that FARC has never refused, this information was been gathered all over the country, where the hostages are dispersed but also clarification of proposals that had not been finished regarding the Humanitarian exchange. France was not negotiating anything but was involved in playing a facilitators role to bring together the two sides that must negotiate the exchange, that is, the Colombian government and FARC.

To complicate the task of the French, the Colombian government started to produce perverse leaks and organise a wave of rumours following the latest meeting in the forest of southern Colombia. First of al they said that the contacts had been made in Ecuador and that several hostages would be freed there: and that is what was reported in an Ecuadorian newspaper. Then they spread rumours according to which the talks would take place in Paris in a very luxurious location. And they even let it be known that the French negotiator would be Noel Sanchez, French consul formerly appointed to Bogotá, which placed the life of this citizen in danger should he have travelled to Colombia.

Faced with the wave of biased rumours, the author of this article, knowing the truth, because he had proof of these meetings and the impact of these through French sources and from FARC, decided to make a statement in which he confirmed that the meeting had taken place on Colombian soil but that there was no record because everything was still being arranged and because the role of France is one of facilitating and not of negotiating, something well understood by Paris and by FARC-EP.

The rumour that stated meetings would happen in Ecuador, and that hostages would be freed there had a hidden agenda to affect relations between Colombia and Ecuador, exactly at a time when the Ecuadorian Government had rejected the Plan Colombia sprayings and had decided to be neutral in the internal Colombian conflict. These latest revelations did not please Urine of course.

But this rumour was absurd because if it were true that meetings were to be held in Ecuador and that persons held hostage wee to be freed there, the diplomatic protest ought to have been made by Ecuador and not by Colombia. The role of the Colombian Minister for Justice in this business is not understood at all, it is even seen as ridiculous in certain quarters in Colombia

In reality Uribe's government has never wanted the help of friendly countries. Parties that existed in the past in order to have talks with ELN and FARC were disbanded without fuss. The government has also put pressure so that James Lemoyne, delegate of the United Nations Secretary General.

It is interesting to notice that the Colombian protest is based on the issue of the " undue interference of France in Colombian internal affairs", when France should be thanked for its efforts as the members of the family of the former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt have stated. However this enthusiasm to defend the sovereignty has not always been shown when it concerned the foreigner William Wood who says what he likes, misguidedly gives opinions on matters human and divine without the slightest diplomacy and gives orders to the government in public.

When the US government claims, "it will not deal with terrorists" it sent by various channels messages to FARC indicating willingness to talk "about all issues" but without any publicity. The number of messages from foreign agents, coming from different directions, has constrained FARC from declaring it is ready to establish contact with the US government and only if the latter shows its willingness by publishing its views in El Tiempo [number one national daily newspaper] a source close to FARC-EP told Voz. The President is also aware of this.

Carlos Lozano Guillen
Director of  Voz (weekly paper of the Colombian Communist party)