Annan names LeMoyne special adviser on Colombia
( 2002-11-02 10:24 ) (7 )

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has named former journalist and U.N. peace envoyJames LeMoyne as his special adviser on war-torn Colombia, the

United Nations announced on Friday.

The appointment comes as the United Nations weighs a

request from Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, who took office

in August, for mediation in Colombia's 38-year war, which pits

government forces against left-wing rebels and outlawed

right-wing paramilitary groups.

LeMoyne, a former New York Times journalist, served

previously as a special envoy for the secretary-general in

Colombia, on a less formal basis, seeking to facilitate a peace

agreement under former President Andres Pastrana.

The last attempt to negotiate peace with the country's

largest insurgent army, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of

Colombia, known as FARC, ended in February when Pastrana kicked

the guerrillas out of talks after several abuses.

Uribe took office in August on pledges to get tough with

outlaws fighting in a cocaine-fueled war that claimed the lives

of 40,000 people in the last decade and has forced more than

two million from from their homes.

Uribe, whose father was killed by the FARC about 20 years

ago, has invited the United Nations to use its "good offices"

to bring the 17,000-strong FARC to the negotiating table. He

has said he will only dialogue with rebels once they declare a

cease-fire and end their kidnapping-for-ransom business.

The 50-year-old president is counting on the United Nations

to help the government strike a "humanitarian accord" to free

kidnapping victims being held by Marxist rebels.

The FARC -- a 1960s rebel force which says it fights for

socialist demands -- is holding about 80 high-profile hostages

including five congressmen, the former governor of Uribe's home

province and former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt.

Last month, the FARC asked for the release of all of the

some 3,000 guerrillas being held in government prisons --

something the government will most likely reject.

LeMoyne, a U.S. citizen born in Germany and raised in

Europe, has previously been involved in U.N. peace processes

for 20 years in Nicaragua, El Salvador, Haiti, the former

Yugoslavia, Northern Ireland, Guatemala and Colombia.

The United Nations acted as a facilitator in the three

frustrating years which Pastrana devoted to the peace process

but did not perform the more demanding role of mediator between

the government and rebels. It also played a key role in the

resolution of Central American wars.