FARC: Peace deal not possible in 6 months if Colombia backtracks

The FARC guerilla group warned Saturday that a peace deal with the Colombian government would not be possible within the agreed-upon six-month window if Bogota backtracks on the current partial deal.

The six-month time frame, which was agreed last month, "will not be viable if the government begins to question the agreements already signed and backtracks on the current progress," Commander Carlos Antonio Lozada, one of the FARC guerrilla group's negotiators, told reporters in Havana.

His comments come one day after the resumption of talks, with both sides already disputing details of last month's historic agreement on how justice will be meted out for crimes committed during the five-decade conflict.

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) says the justice issue is now closed while a government negotiator said the justice deal was a "document under construction" that still needed to be finalized by lawyers from both sides.

The current partial deal was signed September 23 and commits the sides to finalizing a peace deal before March 23, 2016.

Source: AFP