Colombia Eyes Scandinavia As Example

ASSOCIATED PRESS Wednesday, 2 February 2000 By Javier Baena

BOGOTA - Seeking a blueprint for Colombia's future, government and rebel negotiators flew to Sweden and Norway this week for a look at how Scandinavian societies balance economic competition with social justice.

Victor G. Ricardo, the Colombian government's peace commissioner, and a high-level Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia delegation led by chief negotiator Raul Reyes departed Colombia on Tuesday, said Foreign Minister Guillermo Fernandez de Soto.

Last weekend, government and FARC negotiators launched talks on a new model for economic and social development.

Rebels say Colombia's deeply rooted inequalities are the basis for their nearly 36-year-old insurgency.

"This group of Nordic nations, friends of the peace process, can offer good ideas for the negotiations regarding economic issues," Fernandez de Soto said in a radio interview Wednesday. He spent the weekend in Stockholm and Oslo working out details of the trip.

The International Council of Swedish Industry invited the Colombians to Stockholm to study aspects of that country's society.

"What we can provide is probably ideas and perspectives but indeed not any solutions or any firm advice," said the council's executive director, Aake Magnusson.

In rebel-controlled southern Colombia, government and FARC negotiators agreed last weekend to work on an economic agreement as the first step toward ending the conflict. Every third person in this Andean nation lives in poverty.

Both sides have said they believe neither socialism nor unfettered capitalism are acceptable, and that foreign investment should be encouraged without Colombians ceding control of their natural resources.

The two sides have set an 18-month timetable for peace. However, analysts expect the process to take years.

The FARC has refused a cease-fire and business leaders have shown little willingness to offer concessions. Nevertheless, rebel leaders whose hermetic life had given them little exposure to the modern world have been opening up recently. In June, they received the New York Stock Exchange's chairman, Richard Grasso.