Switzerland Asks Colombia to Stop Harassing Swiss Mediator

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Bloomberg

Switzerland Asks Colombia to Stop Harassing Swiss Mediator

By Marc Wolfensberger

July 16 (Bloomberg) -- Switzerland has started a ``diplomatic procedure'' aimed at getting Colombia to stop harassing Swiss mediator Jean-Pierre Gontard, who helped release prisoners held by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.

The Foreign Affairs Ministry is taking ``very seriously'' Colombian media reports about the ``possible opening'' by Bogota of an investigation against Gontard, it said in an e-mailed statement late yesterday. The ministry reiterated its support for Gontard, who ``together with the French mediator worked in an extremely difficult environment, often risking their lives.''

Last week, Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos accused the Swiss mediator of conveying $500,000 to the FARC after the release of two hostages in 2001, according to an interview with Colombian newspaper El Tiempo. The Swiss Foreign Affairs Ministry has since confirmed that a payment was made following the release of two employees working for a Swiss company, but it denies Gontard carried the money.

Colombia's ambassador to Switzerland, Claudia Jimenez, said last week that her country would no longer rely on Swiss mediation efforts to liaise with the FARC.



Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=aLs6oRQN3jBU&refer=latin_america

[bluesmail]

1. Columbia, (okay The USA) is grasping at straws

in it's efforts all over the planet to "fix" their blowbacks. Way too many to fix at once, now that the bells have rung. And you know what they say about a rung bell. :evilgrin:

[Peace Patriot]

2. The plot thickens! Oh, man, this is good. Now it's the SWISS who are "terrorist lovers"!

Not just the presidents of Venezuela, Ecuador, Argentina, Bolivia and Brazil--all of whom tried to help with hostage releases, and efforts toward peace in Colombia's 40+ year civil war--and all of whom are LEFTISTS. (Hard to call the rightwing president of France a leftist, though--so he was just kind of an anomaly.) And it's not just the Spanish, who also (with France and Switzerland) sent envoys to Ecuador for the first effort to get Betancourt released--the one that the U.S./Colombia blew away with ten U.S. "smart bombs" on March 1, killing the FARC's chief hostage negotiator, Raul Reyes, and 24 others, in their sleep, at a camp just inside Ecuador's border. It's not just Hugo Chavez, with Colombia's ridiculous charge that the number "300" and the word "dossier," found in Raul Reyes' laptop, mean that Chavez gave the FARC $300,000! And it's not just us Stalinist dictator-lovers on the blogs. It's the premier NEUTRAL nation in the world, Switzerland, who is supporting FARC "terrorism" with hard cash.

It's interesting what's really going--which can found in the black holes of missing information in all corporate 'news' monopoly stories: a) the real "terrorists" in Colombia are the Colombian military and closely tied rightwing paramilitary death squads, who are responsible for most of the carnage against innocent parties in Colombia, according to all human rights groups, and b) funded with $5.5 BILLION of U.S. taxpayer money, through Bushite fingers, to the Colombian military and paramilitaries.

A few hundred thousand dollars to the FARC (if any such alleged payments are true) is a pittance by comparison.

And we need also to be aware of how fascist propaganda in the corporate 'news' monopolies works. Whether it's Bush or Uribe (two of a kind), they pre-emptively blame others for what they have done, or are about to do. The corporate 'news' monopolies promulgate those pre-emptive charges throughout the world without any questions, vetting or skepticism. The upshot is creation of flak cover for whatever crimes the fascists have committed, or are about to be commit. Example: Iraq WMDs and "mushroom clouds" and so on. That was all flak cover for Bush's impending slaughter of one million innocent Iraqis, to get their oil.

Similarly, Uribe's wild charge against Chavez ("300" + "dossier" = $300,000 of support for "terrorists"), and this charge against the Swiss, were/are very likely flak cover for Uribe's $2 million payment to the FARC (or to FARC turncoats) to purchase the glory and the headlines for the Betancourt 'rescue' (which Uribe stole from the president of Ecuador, who was negotiating her release back in February, with the help of French, Swiss and Spanish envoys, Hugo Chavez and others).

And it is general flak cover for the overarching situation: Bush massive funding of the real terrorists in Colombia, the people who chainsaw union leaders and throw their body parts into mass graves, and slit children's throats on suspicion of their parents being leftists, and who have tortured and killed thousands of innocents, along with other kinds of repression against the poor (intimidation of voters, election fraud, threats against journalists and human rights workers).

It's all the fault of the Swiss, don't ya know! Today, anyway.

It's odd that Colombia would bring up a Swiss ransom for hostages of seven years ago. That would seem to be 'water under the bridge,' at this point. Maybe Gotard is the one who leaked Uribe's $2 MILLION ransom (and 'rescue' stunt) to Swiss radio, and this is Uribe's (and Santos') revenge.

Notable: There is strong, public evidence of a rift between Uribe and Santos. And that could be in play here. Whose idea was it to pay the FARC $2 million for Betancourt? And who would be most harmed by its full disclosure, especially within Colombia? It would harm both of them, actually, and may therefore be a "hot potato" they're passing back and forth. Santos (currently Defense Minister--that is, paymaster of the $5.5 BILLION) wants to run for president. Uribe bribed legislators (one of whom went to jail for it) to get his term of office extended, and may be about to pull off a similar stunt, to run for re-election again. Who is to blame for blowing away the first Betancourt release (by killing Reyes back in March), and then PAYING the FARC for the recent release, could well be a big campaign issue.

Noteworthy also: When Hugo Chavez (at Uribe's request) negotiated with the FARC for hostages releases in Dec 07-Feb 08, and got a total of six hostages released, they were released WITHOUT CONDITIONS. Colombia demanded this all along--no conditions. Chavez complied, and got FARC to comply. What they got for their compliance was Uribe suddenly pulling the rug out from under Chavez (withdrawing his permission), and the Colombian military bombing the location of the first two hostages, as they were on route to their freedom, driving them back into the jungle on a 20 mile hike. Chavez got them out later, by a different route--plus four others--all without conditions, not even safe passage.

Uribe also used the opportunity of Chavez's successful negotiation "without conditions" to apprehend several FARC curriers, who were carrying "proof of life" documents to Chavez--the first step in any hostage negotiation. Uribe & co. then tried to publicly embarrass Chavez over a truly silly point--whether or not the FARC actually had custody of a child who was involved--something Chavez could have absolutely no way of knowing for certain. They called Chavez "a liar." And this is something you just DON'T DO in a hostage negotiation--berate the negotiators in public--because it puts the hostages' lives in great peril.

Uribe & co. were guilty of crude treachery--using the hostages as pawns, and putting their lives at great risk, in several ways, just to score points in the corporate press. The whole thing may well have been a set up, to hand Chavez a diplomatic disaster, with dead hostages. It sure looks that way--although the rift between Uribe and Santos may indicate that the treachery had multiple fronts (for instance, maybe Uribe didn't know that the military was going to bomb the location of the first two hostages--that was Santos' doing--to try to drive a wedge between Uribe and Chavez, who had reconciled after a plot to assassinate Chavez had surfaced from within the Colombian military, involving a close Uribe associate). Santos may be the worst of the bad actors in Colombia, not Uribe (who is bad enough).

In that case, my above analysis of the currier apprehension should read this way: The Colombian military, under Santos' direction, used the opportunity of Chavez's successful negotiation "without conditions" (which Uribe had initiated, with his request for Chavez's help), to apprehend several FARC curriers, who were carrying "proof of life" documents to Chavez. It was the Colombian military, under Santos, who were guilty of crude treachery, and Uribe was caught in the middle. He likely serves at their sufferance, and can be assassinated at any time. Uribe's behavior has been so erratic and inexplicable throughout all this, that it makes sense to think of him as being spun like a top among powerful forces--the Bush Junta, Santos and the Colombian military/paramilitaries, and various drug lords, also Exxon Mobil, Occidental Petroleum, Chiquita, Monsanto, et al (each with their own agendas), plus world leaders, human rights groups and the hostages' families, with Chavez out there saying, "Come on, brother! Dump the gringos, and join the South American 'Common Market'!"

Thus, one day Uribe's trying to file charges of genocide (!) against Chavez (who has harmed no one) with the World Court (laughed out of court), and the next day (or so it seems) is in Caracas calling Chavez his "brother." Or, one day, he asks Chavez to negotiate with the FARC, and the next day (pretty much) is denouncing that effort. Why did he ask Chavez to negotiate with the FARC in the first place? In view of subsequent events, it looked like he was cynically setting up a trap. But, given the rift with Santos--that has finally erupted in the press--it could be that he didn't know how Santos & co. (advised by Donald Rumsfeld? --very possibly) were going to try to use that opportunity to "get" Chavez. He did their bidding, but it's possible he was trapped into doing so.

This certainly would help explain Chavez's behavior as well--his dauntless efforts to keep making friends with Uribe, no matter what Colombia does (bombing the hostages, bombing Ecuador, killing the hostage negotiator, slandering Chavez, plotting to assassinate him, etc., etc.) The credit for Betancourt's release has been handed to Uribe and the Colombian military, by the Associated Pukes (on cue), and Chavez seems to have no resentment about that, even though he (and Rafael Correa) nearly had her in hand, in late Feb. (The U.S./Colombia bombing of Reyes occurred March 1.) Lula da Silva, president of Brazil, called Chavez "the great peacemaker," and that may be true, but it's damned difficult to make peace with people who are trying to assassinate you and destroy you in every way possible. It's likely that Chavez has all along known something we couldn't know--that it's Santos who has been the worst of the Colombian bad actors in all this, and that Uribe has at least some desire to free Colombia from Bushite domination. That domination is more via Santos and the military and paramilitaries, than via Uribe, who appeared to be a Bushite tool, but--although he is certainly a bad guy--may be more of an opportunist than anything else. And the South American "Common Market" is looking like a much better opportunity, these days, that any "free trade" scraps the Bushites are giving out.

[Judi Lynn]

3. Since they weren't getting too far with their original line of attack on the Swiss mediator(s), we

suddenly see someone has hauled out the seemingly eternal laptop(S) to comment in more detail about those FARC-lovin' rascals!

Colombia cuts off foreign mediation with rebels
By FRANK BAJAK, Associated Press Writer
56 minutes ago

~snip~
In part because the rebels no longer hold Betancourt — a cause celebre in Europe — or any other foreigners, Uribe apparently no longer feels the political pressure to keep Europe involved in trying to end Colombia's class-based conflict. So he has frozen international mediation efforts, accusing the Swiss and French envoys at its forefront of overstepping their mandate in dealing with the FARC.

Since the July 2 raid, Uribe's conservative government has leaked rebel-penned documents supporting its claim that the envoys — Swiss emissary Jean-Pierre Gontard in particular — were sympathetic to the rebels.

"Generally speaking, they had always been a nuisance," Gaviria told the AP.

Such language indicates government officials "aren't interested in establishing serious contact" with the rebels, said Leon Valencia, an independent political analyst. "Without mediation and without an international presence, there is no possibility of arriving at any accords," he said.

Colombia's chief prosecutor Mario Iguaran said Tuesday that he would likely open a preliminary criminal probe into Gontard's activities based on the documents, which are among thousands the government says it found in a laptop belonging to FARC foreign minister Raul Reyes after killing him in a March 1 raid on his jungle camp in Ecuador.

One 2004 message from Reyes quotes Gontard as calling Uribe "a fascist cowboy" and stressing that Switzerland had no intention of joining the United States and European Union in branding the FARC a terrorist organization.

The Swiss envoy also personally carried US$2,000 in June 2007 from Reyes to the FARC's representative in Switzerland, according to two documents obtained by the AP.

Still other laptop documents detail French efforts to buy Betancourt's freedom by offering asylum to the family of Reyes' daughter and the rebels' entire seven-man leadership, the Colombian TV network RCN reported Tuesday.

Gontard, a 67-year-old university professor, did not respond to telephoned and e-mailed requests for comment. But his government stood firmly by him, saying it had instructed its ambassador to "stop the attacks on the Swiss mediator," who it said had pursued "only humanitarian aims" under "sometimes life-threatening conditions."

Thomas Greminger, the senior Swiss Foreign Ministry official to whom Gontard reports, told the AP that Gontard has been under contract for eight years — earning at least 100,000 Swiss francs (US$98,500) a year — with "a clear mandate" but some room for maneuvering.

Uribe's preference for military options had frustrated recent efforts by the French and Swiss emmisaries — as well as Colombia's leftist neighbors — to make any headway with the rebels.

Just days before Colombian warplanes obliterated Reyes' camp, Gontard and the French envoy, Noel Saez, told Uribe's administration they were planning to travel there for talks.

And just four days before the hostage rescue, the pair met in Colombia with an envoy of top FARC leader Alfonso Cano. It was the nearest they'd come to the FARC's top leadership since Reyes' death — and there was promise of further contact.

More:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080717/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/colombia_peace_envoys

~~~~~~~~~~~
Glad you've introduced the possibility Uribe is being whirled around witlessly or close to it, in the jaws of multiple political forces. Very enjoyable to imagine, and it may explain the occassionally bewildered, disgruntled look on his pasty little face.

http://www.elmercurio.com.ec.nyud.net:8090/web/imagenes/titulares/noticia_2007-01-11_wkJSjXnm.jpg

[Peace Patriot]

5. They didn't need to kill Reyes. He was asleep! Instead of bombing the camp

and massacring most of those present (about 25 people), then crossing the border to shoot any survivors in the back, they could have walked into the camp, and kidnapped Reyes or just arrested everybody. That's what all the bits and pieces of evidence regarding that raid add up to. Items like the Ecuadoran military finding bodies in their pajamas shot in the back--and the U.S. high tech phone surveillance (that would have told them what Reyes' purpose was--to release Betancourt). The camp was apparently lightly guarded. Reyes thought they were safe. That's why he'd crossed the border to camp in Ecuador--to find a safe place to bring Betancourt to, to release her (especially in view of the Colombian bombings of the first two hostage releases). Colombia/U.S.-Bush could have overcome this camp with tear gas. There was no need to drop ten U.S. "smart bombs" on these people, and blow them all away--except this: Reyes is no longer alive--neither for a trial, nor to question their claims about the contents of his laptop (or its ownership).

Now the laptop (later, laptopS) is their weapon of choice in their desperate campaign to cover up horrendous Colombian military/paramilitary war crimes, as well as Uribe's bribery, corruption, drug trafficking, election fraud and ties to yet worse. And one reels in horror at the prospect of a Colombian military/paramilitary (and no doubt Blackwater) turkey shoot in the Colombian countryside--with Europe now less involved (if that is so). Sad to say, the U.S., of course, is no bar to it. If Europe backs down, that means that the entire western 'first world' may just sit back while we see a repeat of Guatemala 1980s all over again. Canada, too, is useless on Colombia's human rights horrors--they want the slave labor, the oil, whatever they can get (already "free trading" with these fascist bastards).

Who is left? The rest of South America, that's who. The South Americans themselves are now the force that can stop another genocide. And I strongly suspect that this is another reason why Chavez has made such efforts to befriend Uribe. He's got hundreds of thousands of Colombian refugees fleeing from this civil war (mostly from the Colombian military and paramilitaries) into Venezuela. How many more can Venezuela feed, house and give jobs to? He could have a humanitarian disaster happening right on his border. The other many leftist governments need to be pulled together and focused on preventing this. Because Colombia has a semblance of a democracy (and I stress the word "semblance"), and a Bush-funded, heavily armed military, they can't just walk in and take over Colombia and create some sort of South American protectorate (i.e., a UN-type peace-keeping mission). They have to work with existing conditions, and within the rule of law that they have been trying so hard to establish throughout the region. This means working with Uribe, and bolstering him up vis a vis Santos (who would be an outright military dictator), while continuing efforts to broker a peace in this long civil war.

I wouldn't underestimate FARC's ability to recover. They've been fighting for 40+ years, and obviously have considerable local support. They are said to control 20% to 30% of Colombia. Chavez has called for them to release all of their hostages, and disarm. But for that to happen, there have to be diplomatic and political agreements that would restrain the Colombian military/paramilitaries. The last time FARC tried to disarm, 4,000 of their public office holders, candidates, supporters and voters were slaughtered by the Colombian military and paramilitaries. Uribe would be the key to such agreements and safety guarantees. Santos won't do any such thing. It is apparent that he is sabotaging every effort at peace, including the recent accord between Uribe and Chavez. The Colombian addiction to U.S. tax dollars is a poison worse than cocaine (--and is no doubt closely tied to it). The Bushites revel in war, death, bloodshed and torture. So do some Colombians. Others are just greedy.

It would be by far the best thing for South America to be able to sort this out for itself. Maybe it's best that Betancourt is out of the picture--or at least her captivity; she is considering running for president of Colombia (she is a dual French/Colombian citizen, and a former candidate for president). She could broker a peace. But a Santos military dictatorship--and blitzkrieg against the poor--needs to be prevented in the meantime. Thus, Chavez befriends Uribe. Chavez described Santos as "a threat"--and I think this is what he meant--a Santos military dictatorship that will cause no end of grief and trouble for Colombians, Venezuelans and others.

[Judi Lynn]

6. An unmurdered Reyes would be able to send the message out that the gibberish Uribe's people are

claiming to have found in his laptop(S) is pure invention.

Also, as long as Colombia can keep its overwhelming poverty intact, it will ALWAYS have an undiminished supply of poor young men who must take employment wherever they find it, be it in the Colombian military, or worse, in the paramilitary.

Thanks to you for directing a fair amount of attention for DU'ers to remember concerning Santos. It may well be he is responsible for so much more of this policy than we've taken the time to realize. Just like Rumsfeld.

http://www.virginmedia.com.nyud.net:8090/images/thejoker-431x300.jpg

http://cache.daylife.com.nyud.net:8090/imageserve/03L96KI00Bh2x/610x.jpg

Fice President Francisco Santos, Uribe, Def. Min. Juan Miguel Santos

(cousins)

http://cache.daylife.com.nyud.net:8090/imageserve/039B0ud6gg00T/610x.jpg

http://www.radiosantafe.com.nyud.net:8090/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/juan-manuel-santos.jpg

http://cache.daylife.com.nyud.net:8090/imageserve/05mncC80sY8Ar/340x.jpg

[Peace Patriot]

7. Well, guess what? Lulu is taking my advice! (ha-ha)

Judi Lynn just posted the latest news:

Lula to talk FARC, defense council with Colombia's Uribe
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=405x6172

Did I not just say this?

"The other many leftist governments need to be pulled together and focused on preventing this (more violence in Colombia). Because Colombia has a semblance of a democracy (and I stress the word "semblance"), and a Bush-funded, heavily armed military, they can't just walk in and take over Colombia and create some sort of South American protectorate (i.e., a UN-type peace-keeping mission). They have to work with existing conditions, and within the rule of law that they have been trying so hard to establish throughout the region. This means working with Uribe, and bolstering him up vis a vis Santos (who would be an outright military dictator), while continuing efforts to broker a peace in this long civil war."

"Chavez has called for them to release all of their hostages, and disarm. But for that to happen, there have to be diplomatic and political agreements that would restrain the Colombian military/paramilitaries."

I did!

Hallelujah! Lulu's on it!

[gratuitous]

4. Well, the Swiss flag has that cross on it

So our good friends the Colombians are just worried that the Swiss will come under fire thanks to Colombia's violations of some of the quainter aspects of the Geneva Conventions. So it's all good.