Geneva - In an attempt to push forward Colombia's peace process, government officials are due to meet the country's second-largest guerrilla group, the National Liberation Army, for talks starting on Monday.
Both sides have asked Switzerland to host the two-day meeting. For 36 years Colombia has been the scene of a civil war which pits leftist guerrillas against the state and right-wing paramilitaries. Some 120,000 people have died in the conflict, mainly civilians.
Meanwhile, Marxist rebels from the FARC group killed at least 28 members of Colombia's main right-wing paramilitary force, the outlawed United Self-Defence Forces, in fighting in a remote region of the Andes mountains, authorities said yesterday.