Pubdate: Thu, 09 Nov 2000 Source: New York Times (NY) Copyright: 2000 The New York Times Company Contact: 229 West 43rd Street, New York, NY 10036 Fax: (212) 556-3622 Website: http://www.nytimes.com/ Forum: http://forums.nytimes.com/comment/ Section: International Author: Juan Forero COCA CONFLICT IN COLOMBIA SNARES THE INNOCENT SAN MIGUEL, Colombia, Nov. 6 - The 16 cars were lined up in a row, their drivers pushed to the side of the road at gunpoint. Then the rebel leader waved his weapon and gave an order, "Get the gasoline, and start lighting." Moments later, one vehicle after another was ablaze, with black plumes of smoke filling the blue sky. The Colombian guerrillas, AK-47's hanging from their shoulders, ran from exploding Toyota jeeps and old Ford trucks as the stunned owners watched silently. The drivers had merely wanted to pick up some food and fuel in neighboring Ecuador and return to their homes. But in doing so they had flouted the most basic of laws here in Putumayo, a Vermont-sized province of coca-growing jungle and a crucial battleground in the country's civil conflict. The Marxist rebels have banned everyone from traveling Putumayo's rocky roads, strangling the local economy. The upheaval underscores the challenge that President Andres Pastrana faces as he works with the American government in imposing a $7.5 billion plan to curtail the lucrative coca trade and weaken the rebels. For all the financial and military aid that Washington is providing, much of the countryside in Putumayo is controlled by the rebels. Guerrillas patrol the smaller communities, and their roadblocks have resulted in dwindling food supplies in many communities. Guerrilla checkpoints - typically a handful of men standing by the side of the road with AK-47's and jugs of gasoline - seem to pop up anywhere. Behind every turn a driver risks losing his car or worse. "They just took it, and this is all I have, these keys," said Javier Pimiento, 22, who was only a few hundred yards inside Colombia from the bridge to Ecuador when he was ordered from his car. "I feel terrible. I can't even bring food home. They have a conflict going, but why get us involved?" The rebels are unfazed by the fact that the villagers they profess to support have suffered in this latest of several vehicle burnings. They justified their actions by saying the drivers had been ferrying military provisions. This sparsely populated corner of the country has become hotly contested because about half of Colombia's coca crop is grown here. With the province a major focus of the government's anti-drug plan, American-trained counterinsurgency battalions, working with the national police, will by next year take aim at the drug traffickers and laboratories that process coca leaves into the paste used to make cocaine. But it won't be easy, the government concedes. Col. Gabriel Diaz, commander of the Colombian military's 24th Brigade in Putumayo, said the burning of cars and trucks by the guerrillas was intended to make it more difficult for the government to attack the cocaine industry. "They want the people to feel hunger," the colonel said, "and possibly provoke a protest and a confrontation with the government forces." For their part, the rebels say the destruction is meant to send a message to the government in Bogota: rein in the paramilitary gunmen. Paramilitary forces have been battling the rebels in Putumayo in a series of ferocious skirmishes since September. "We have to show them that we're a force," said a rebel leader who goes by the nom de guerre Olbani. "That we're capable of paralyzing the whole country." He accused the Colombian forces of working with the notorious paramilitary gunmen of the United Self- Defense Forces of Colombia, who are the main challengers to the rebels' control of the coca fields here. Human rights groups say the Self-Defense Forces are responsible for widespread massacres of villagers and have ties to rogue elements in the military, a charge the government has long denied. The stranglehold has been especially hard on towns like Puerto Asis, La Dorada and La Hormiga, which the rebels say are hotbeds of paramilitary activity. Asserting that the government has not done enough, despite airlifts to ease the food shortages, officials from across Putumayo are planning to travel to Bogota in a convoy of cars, possibily on Sunday, as a sign of protest. But many people have given up on living here. At least 1,100 refugees now live in Lago Agrio, Ecuador, all but 38 of them in the homes of relatives or friends, according to the relief organization that has coordinated shelter for them. An estimated 5,000 to 10,000 more have avoided the roadblocks by traversing Ecuador and re-entering Colombia through the western province of Narino, where many have roots. Jose Pablo Pascal, who fled La Dorada on Saturday to join his wife and five children in Ecuador, is now sleeping on the concrete floor of a friend's kitchen, next to a sack of potatoes and the refrigerator. "What terrorized us was the fear," Mr. Pascal, 42, said. "You didn't know if when you went to sleep that something wouldn't happen. You couldn't even sleep." At a small house in Lago Agrio that is sheltering eight families, refugees said that they were afraid of being attacked by guerrillas or paramilitaries operating in their communities. "We were in the middle of the conflict, and so we had to get out," said Roberto Rosero. "Where we were, we had guerrillas and then just over the bend were the paramilitaries, and they were fighting all the time." Relief workers in Ecuador have been working to complete four other shelters, which together will be able to house 230 people. "We think that the problem is just starting, and it's going to get worse," said Gribaldo Cueva, one of the workers. "With the combat between the guerrillas and the paramilitaries in the countryside, more people will be coming." Both the rebels and paramilitaries appear firmly established and prepared to fight for months on end. In the countryside, guerrillas are such a presence that they have taken part in the meetings farmers have lately held with local officials to discuss coca eradication efforts. In towns like Puerto Asis and La Hormiga, meanwhile, residents quietly point out the paramilitary gunmen drinking at the local bar or enjoying a snow cone in the town plaza. The government, though, does have a presence, and engagements between soldiers and rebels are not unusual. This year, 22 guerrillas have been killed by the military in combat in Putumayo and 16 others have been captured, said Colonel Diaz, reading from the latest battlefield reports. But he acknowledges that his forces cannot be everywhere. On Sunday, just a day after the burning of the cars, government counterinsurgency troops could be seen patrolling on foot stretches of road that rebels had occupied the day before. Near the community of El Tigre, a patrol leader was asked why the military had not stopped the rebels from burning the cars. "We couldn't get there fast enough," he said. "It's too far, and you can't take the road anyway because of the ambushes." - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens