Rodrigo Londoño, the former FARC guerrilla leader who signed the peace in Colombia, said on Tuesday that he had come to
"hate"
his organization for atrocities committed during five decades of conflict.
The leader of what was the most powerful guerrilla in the Americas reiterated Monday's demands for a public apology for the more than 20,000 kidnappings carried out by the organization and the recruitment of minors into its ranks.
"The kidnapping was a very serious mistake of which we can only repent,"
the leadership of what is now a political party under the name of Common Revolutionary Alternative Force said in a statement Monday.
It was the strongest request for forgiveness expressed by the former guerrilla forces of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) since a peace agreement was signed in 2016 with the Colombian government.
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Listening to the victims and recognizing the truth about what happened,
"I come to hate the FARC that I have in front of me and which is nothing like the one I joined"
, said said in an interview with Rodrigo Londoño, alias "Tymoshenko".
“We do our introspectio
n (...)
we internalize things, it's difficult when we have defended something for so many years, that we believed in it, and that we have to say that we were wrong , that it was wrong, ”
admitted the leader.
Founded in 1964, the FARC recognized that
"the kidnappings
(....)
wounded to death"
the
"legitimacy and credibility"
of its armed uprising against the Colombian state and expressed their regret for the
"pain"
and the
“humiliations”
inflicted on the victims.
"This burden
(...)
weighs today on the conscience and the heart of each of us"
, it is added in the
press
release.
The ex-guerrillas answer for their actions before a special peace tribunal (JEP) created by the peace agreement which enabled the demobilization of around 13,000 Farc rebels, including 7,000 combatants.
The main ex-guerrilla leaders pledged to confess their crimes before the JEP and to compensate the victims or their families, in exchange for alternative sentences to prison.
If they do not keep their commitment, they will be brought before ordinary justice.
"The generosity of the victims"
Tymoshenko said he was
"struck"
by
"the generosity of the victims"
and stressed that the poignant testimony of Ingrid Betancourt, Monday in video-conference in front of the JEP,
"influenced"
his repentance.
The Franco-Colombian, kidnapped by the FARC, testified about the six years she spent in rebel hands.
“The kidnapping does not have an expiration date, it does not end on the day of release.
It is murder because the person who suffers it, even if they are lucky enough to be released, are already someone else when they come out of captivity, ”
said the former presidential candidate, released during a military operation in 2008.
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The former rebellion must also answer for the recruitment of thousands of children and adolescents during more than half a century of armed conflict.
Rodrigo Londoño admitted that these forced enlistments were
"a mistake"
.
Colombia's complex internal armed conflict has claimed more than nine million victims (dead, missing and internally displaced), according to official figures.
The disarmament of the Farc has made it possible to reduce the intensity of the conflict, but the country remains confronted with the violence of the National Liberation Army (ELN), the last active guerrilla, as well as narco-traffickers.