If no progress with FARC, then peace talks over: Colombian President

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos has said that if peace talks with the FARC make no progress, we`re getting up from the negotiating table.

Bogota: Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos has said that if peace talks with the FARC make no progress, "we`re getting up from the negotiating table", adding that the guerrillas will not get the truce they are asking for.

"In the measure that we make progress, we`ll be satisfied. If we don`t make progress, we`re getting up from the negotiating table. I hope we keep going forward but meanwhile the rules of the game are very clear. There`s not going to be a truce here of any kind," Santos told reporters after a meeting with leaders and inhabitants of Santa Barbara municipality in Antioquia province.

On Friday, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, through its leader "Timochenko" or "Timoleon Jimenez", criticised the Colombian government for giving land to peasants that had supposedly been taken over by rebels, which, he said, made it look very doubtful that Santos is genuinely seeking peace.

In the presentation of land to the peasants last Wednesday in Caqueta province, Santos said that "11 years later, instead of being robbed by the FARC, we are taking back from the FARC their ill-gotten lands and we`re giving farmer workers the land they should have and that belongs to them".

IANS

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