Ecuador President: Colombian gov't wants war, not peace

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-03-06 10:33

RIO DE JANEIRO - Ecuador's President Rafael Correa said here Wednesday that Colombia's government "wants war, not peace," in a statement indicating that a resolution to the two nations' diplomatic crisis remains out of reach.

Ecuador broke off ties with Colombia after Colombian government forces entered Ecuadorian territory in a raid on Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels Saturday.

In a meeting with his Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in Brasilia, Correa said, "My country was attacked, bombed. We had to collect corpses from a conflict that is not ours. The indecency, the lack of ethics has no match."

He said Ecuador had not broken off relations with the Colombian people, just the Colombian government.

The president supported the creation of a special committee at the Organization of American States (OAS) to investigate the military operation, which killed 21 FARC members, including the guerrillas' second most important leader, Raul Reyes.

Correa also asked for the international community's support, especially Latin America's.

"Imagine if we accepted (Colombian) President (Alvaro) Uribe's logic, under which it is possible to attack in any territory, all neighboring countries would have to attack the FARC in Colombia," he said. "If the FARC are a menace to the region, as Uribe has been saying, if we want to arrest a guerrilla soldier who is in a hotel in Bogota, let us bomb it too."

The Ecuadorian leader expressed his will to trust international organizations, but said his nation is "sovereign" and will not allow "such (an) outrage" again.

Additionally, Correa thanked President Lula and Brazil's Minister of Foreign Relations Celso Amorim, who also attended the meeting, for condemning the attack over the past few days.