U.S. envoy talks to rebel

Press, 2 August 1983, Page 10

U.S. envoy talks to rebel

NZPA-Reuter Bogota The United States backed Government of El Salvador and Left-wing guerrillas may hold direct talks after the American special envoy, Richard Stone held talks with a guerrilla leader, the Colombian President, Dr Belisario Betancur, said yesterday. Dr Betancur told a press conference that Mr Stone had met Dr Ruben Zamora, a leader of the political wing of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, fighting to overthrow the Salvadorean Government. He described the meeting as a “transcendental step” and said that there could be “other meetings in some undetermined place at some undetermined date.” He added: “And it is possible for contacts to take

place between the Salvadorean guerrillas and some Salvadorean Governmental offices. “But neither dates nor venues are determined, all this becomes a possibility stemming from what happened (the meeting) in Bogota.” The Colombian President said at his press conference: “Ambassador Stone and Dr Ruben Zamora, a representative of the combat fronts, wanted the meeting .to be a preliminary one. “I did not participate in the meeting, I simply acted as a host, therefore I do not know the details.” But a communique issued by the presidency said that the meeting had taken place “with President Betancur’s presence.” Mr Stone, President Ronald Reagan’s repre-

sentative in Central American peace efforts, would meet Dr Betancur again after a trip to El Salvador. “The ice is broken,” the President said. Mr Stone later arrived in El Savador where one of his aides confirmed that he had met a representative of Leftist Salvadorean guerrillas in the Colombian capital, but refused to give details of the meeting. In the Nicaraguan capital, Foreign Ministry officials said that Mr Stone was expected in Managua for talks with the Sandinist Government.

Some 42,000 people have died in El Salvador’s civil war, which has been raging for 3Vz years.

The United States accuses Nicaragua of transhipping Cuban arms to the Leftist guerrillas in El Salvador.

Colombia is a member, with Venezuela, Mexico and Panama, of the Contadora group which is trying to negotiate peace in Central America.

Meanwhile, in London a group of Left-wing Labour Party politicians have strongly attacked Mr Reagan’s dispatch of a naval task force to Central America.

In a letter to “The Times,” 13 British politicans condemned what they called the obvious war intentions of Mr Reagan. The signatories included Eric Heffer, a candidate for the leadership of the opposition Labour Party, the veteran Left-winger, Tony Benn, and Tam Dalyell, the British Parliamentarian most critical of Britain’s Falklands war with Argentina.