Colombian President
Voices Concern Over
Possible Links Between
FARC, ETA
Colombian President
Alvaro Uribe said on
Sunday that the possible
association between the
country’s largest rebel
group and Spain's Basque
separatist organization
ETA is a "very serious"
matter.
Uribe's remarks came a
day after the Spanish TV
channel TVE broadcast a
report on alleged links
between the
Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia (FARC)
and ETA.
He said FARC has been
pursuing terrorism
know-how from
international groups and
has learned from
terrorists how to
destroy lives with the
"most perverse
explosives."
"For this, the country
has to firmly continue
the task of the
'democracy security'
(the official policy
against rebel violence)
to weaken these groups,
till they disappear,"
Uribe said.
During a program on
Saturday, the TVE showed
a video seized last year
by the Colombian
intelligence service, in
which a man identified
as Juan Santrich accused
the Spanish government
of "suppressing the
Basque people."
Spain will not realize
stability unless it
recognizes the region's
"self-determination,
territory and liberty,"
he said.
Colombian officials have
said a computer captured
in a raid on a FARC camp
in March contained
e-mails suggesting that
the rebel group and ETA
could have planned
"criminal activity" in
Spain.
The video was another
proof of the linkage
between FARC and the
ETA, said Colombian
authorities interviewed
for the TVE program.
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