Colombia’s Defence Minister Luis Carlos Villegas speaks next to General Commander of the Armed Forces, Juan Pablo Rodriguez, in Bogota, Colombia. Villegas said the Farc has respected the unilateral ceasefire declared by the guerrilla but that “hostilities” against civilians have not ceased.

Reuters/Bogota

Colombia’s Farc rebel group said its three-month-old unilateral ceasefire, declared amid peace talks with the government to end 51 years of war, may be at risk because of a rise in military actions against its fighters.
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or Farc, who have been negotiating with the government for three years, said in a statement that continued military operations like the one last week that killed four rebels threaten to make the unilateral ceasefire unsustainable.
The current ceasefire is one of several the Farc have declared during the course of the talks. A five-month halt to rebel actions ended in April when the Farc killed 11 soldiers in the rural western province of Cauca.
Defence Minister Luis Carlos Villegas said late on Saturday that though the Farc have halted attacks on military troops since the ceasefire began on July 20, they have not stopped assaults on the civilian population.
“The Farc have complied in an acceptable manner with the ceasefire, but they have not fulfilled the end of hostilities against the civilian population,” Villegas said. “They continue extorting, illegal mining activities, sowing landmines.”
Farc leader Timoleon Jimenez had lashed out at the government on Thursday, accusing it of stepping up operations against the Farc despite the government’s ceasefire offer.
The government has suspended an aerial bombing campaign against rebel camps as a gesture of goodwill in response to the Farc’s ceasefire.
In its statement, the Farc requested a meeting with representatives from Cuba, Norway, Chile and Venezuela, which are guarantor and
observer countries at the talks.
The two sides, negotiating in Cuba since late 2012, have promised to reach a final peace accord by the March 23, 2016. President Juan Manuel Santos said this week that a bilateral ceasefire could be declared in December.
Founded in 1964 in the aftermath of a peasant uprising, the Farc has been fighting the government for more than five decades, in a conflict that has killed more than 220,000 people.