Colombia rebels warn of unexpected delays to talks

The leader of Colombia's FARC rebels warned on Monday that "unexpected delays" are threatening the planned start of landmark peace talks with the government in Oslo this week. News of the possible hold-up came shortly after a bomb attack Sunday on a bridge in northwest Colombia that killed a farmer and his three-year-old son, which the army blamed on the rebels -- underlining the urgency of the talks. In a television interview, FARC leader Timoleon Jimenez blamed the delay on problems in getting arrest warrants for rebels suspended and with travel arrangements for chief negotiator Ivan Marquez, the rebels' number two. Asked if Marquez had been able to get to Cuba, from which the rebel side was supposed to leave as a group for Norway, Jimenez said logistical and weather problems had delayed him, without saying if he was now in Cuba. Regardless, Jimenez stressed, "we are going to get to Oslo, or to wherever the dialogue launch may take place, knowing that we are taking a step forward and a bigger stride toward dialogue. "The dialogue, aimed at reconciliation among Colombians, is already a reality," Jimenez, also known as Timochenko, said in a video response to questions from reporters. "Rather than speculate, we prefer to believe the paperwork for the suspension of arrest warrants has run into unexpected delays," Jimenez added. The Colombian government negotiating delegation had not set off for Oslo either, although a member of the party told AFP that their departure had been put off because of fierce storms over Bogota airport. Former vice president Humberto de la Calle is to lead the government party. Norwegian officials did not comment on fears of a delay, adding that a planned news conference in Oslo for members of both delegations was still expected to go ahead. Jimenez said the rebels had accepted a start date of October 17 for the Oslo round of the negotiations, presuming that logistical concerns would have been addressed by then. "We trust that that will be the case," he stressed. Colombian press reports suggested that the FARC's departure had also been delayed by the group's bid to add a Dutch guerrilla, 34-year-old Tanja Nijmeijer, to their delegation for the talks. The Dutch national is alleged to have joined the FARC in the past decade during her studies in Colombia and has been accused of taking part in 2003 in the kidnap of three US citizens working for a security firm. The American hostages were released five years later in a military operation that also freed Franco-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt. The talks have been shrouded in secrecy after three previous failed attempts to end the half-century conflict that has left thousands of people dead. Founded in 1964, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia is Latin America's largest rebel group with an estimated 9,200 armed fighters operating across a wide area of Colombia's mountainous and forested terrain. Both the rebels and some of the right-wing paramilitaries that opposed them have been accused of drawing funding from the drugs trade, and FARC is among the Colombian groups that have resorted to hostage-taking.