FARC wants secret files on Colombia's conflict made public

The Armed Revolutionary Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebel group Wednesday called on the country's government to declassify secret files on the long-running civil conflict.

The rebels, who are holding peace talks with the government in Havana, Cuba, to end five decades of fighting, want files opened and a truth commission set up to reveal what really happened.

The FARC believes "finding out the historic truth is ethically and politically imperative for the victims of the conflict and Colombian society," according to Havana-based news agency Prensa Latina.

Reading an FARC statement to the press, rebel delegate Joaquin Gomez said that as part of the peace process, the government should proceed to "open the official files and definitively declassify information being kept on different matters related to the conflict and its persistence."

On Tuesday, the FARC said it would reject any peace accord that entailed prison terms for the rebels, and argued state forces committed many crimes over the course of the civil war that were never answered for.

The FARC proposed allowing a truth commission to gather and review records of conflict-related ministerial meetings and congressional decisions, and the files of the military, police and intelligence forces.

The commission, which would include "experts and a representative of the guerrillas," said Gomez, would also be in charge of "obtaining information in the hands of the U.S. government."

A close ally of Colombia, Washington has long provided Bogota with military and financial support to fight the rebels.

Bernard Aronson, who has been appointed by the United States as the special envoy to the peace talks, met with the two sides in Havana over the weekend. Endi