The chairman of the peace committee of the House of Representatives has called for Colombia’s second largest guerrilla group ELN to join the peace talks between the FARC and the government next month.
President of the chamber’s Peace Commission Joaquin Camelo asked for the peace negotiations with the FARC in Oslo also to include the ELN, according to W Radio.
“The government should include the ELN in these dialogues because the cease-fire will be useless if we don’t have a peace process at the same time with this armed organization,” said Camelo during the meeting of the Peace Commission of Congress with Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos.
“The commission agrees that we ask President Santos to include the ELN as soon as possible,” said the representative of the chamber.
Santos has so far kept quiet on the prospective involvement of the ELN in the negotiations to end the 48-year-old conflict with Colombia’s largest guerrilla group FARC.
Since the end of August a number of politicians, including ex-senator Piedad Cordoba who allegedly maintains contact with the ELN, have asked to have the Marxist guerrillas included in the talks.
The guerrilla group itself has expressed a willingness to take part, but has maintained its refusal to end criminal activity.
The ELN allegedly held peace talks in Cuba and Venezuela between 2002 and 2007, however there was reportedly a lack of will from both the government and the ELN to agree on a final peace plan.
In the last few weeks ELN commander “Pablito” accused President Juan Manuel Santos of “not wanting to allow the conditions for peace talks.”