BOGOTA: The leader of Colombia's FARC guerrillas, Timoleon Jimenez, accused the government Thursday of escalating its campaign against the rebels even as it proposes a bilateral ceasefire to advance peace talks.
Speaking a day after President Juan Manuel Santos offered to enter into a ceasefire from January 1 -- granting a longstanding rebel demand -- Jimenez lashed out at the government for nevertheless stepping up operations against the FARC.
Just before Santos's ceasefire offer, the army announced it had killed four FARC fighters in an operation against a rebel unit allegedly involved in extortion and drug trafficking in southwestern Colombia.
"Why, in the face of a possible bilateral truce, would you send infiltrators to murder sleeping guerrillas?" Jimenez, who is known by the alias "Timochenko," wrote on Twitter.
"Is the intensification of (army) operations aimed at ensuring the smallest possible number of FARC guerrillas reach the bilateral ceasefire alive?"
He called for an "immediate de-escalation" by government forces.
Santos meanwhile said he hoped to declare a bilateral ceasefire as soon as possible, potentially even before January 1.
"Yesterday a member of the (FARC) command said why not make it December 16. Great! Let it be December 16. The sooner the better, because we'll save that many more lives," the president said on a local radio network.
Santos insists that any truce in the half-century conflict would be contingent on reaching a deal on the final point in the six-point agenda for the peace talks, the disarmament and demobilization of rebel fighters.
The FARC has been observing a unilateral ceasefire since July and has repeatedly called on the government to reciprocate with a bilateral truce.
Santos has suspended air strikes on FARC positions but had long refused a truce, insisting it would only strengthen the rebels' hand and drag out negotiations.
The two sides have set a target date of March 23, 2016 to reach a final peace accord.
They announced the deadline last month after reaching a landmark deal on the delicate issue of meting out justice for the abuses that human rights groups say both sides have committed in the conflict.
Founded in 1964 in the aftermath of a peasant uprising, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) has been fighting the government for more than five decades, in a conflict that has killed more than 220,000 people.
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