Pubdate: Fri, 26 May 2000 Source: CNN.com (US Web) Copyright: 2000 Cable News Network, Inc. Contact: http://cnn.com/feedback/ Website: http://www.cnn.com/ Forum: http://community.cnn.com/ COLOMBIAN REBEL GROUP PLANS CRACKDOWN ON CORRUPTION BOGOTA, Colombia -- The major rebel army in Colombia plans to crack down on corruption, blaming drugs -- their illegality and the United States' war on them -- for the extensive problems of public bribery in the country. The Revolutionary Armed Force of Colombia, known as FARC, has said it will introduce a "law" to punish corrupt people, said Ivan Marquez, a guerrilla, during a news conference Wednesday. The news conference was held in San Vicente de Caguan, a municipality in the demilitarized zone where peace negotiations between FARC and the Colombian government are taking place. "We are going to legislate in this matter because it is one of the most serious problems facing the country," Marquez said. He did not disclose what punishment would be imposed, but the guerrillas have a tradition of murdering officials accused of committing fraud. The rebels also have subjected some to revolutionary trials. Mayors have been the main victims with, on average, two killed a month. Negotiator wants more information to fight graft Raul Reyes, a FARC negotiator, said the guerrilla organization wants "to fight corruption wherever it may be, because it is everywhere." "For that reason we need to have more information and have a greater exchange of views to take drastic measures against it." Reyes said one of those measures should be the return of everything that has been stolen from Colombia. Guerrillas urge U.S. to legalize drugs Alfonso Cano, a FARC commander and second in command of the guerrilla army, said his organization wants the United States -- "the main consuming country in the world" -- to legalize consumption of psychotropic substances. This, Cano said, would kill the drug business. "We repudiate drug trafficking," he said. "If the U.S. legalizes drugs and organizes the treatment of its patients using the money being spent on the so-called 'war on drugs,' the business as such would disappear because the volume of money that is involved is due to the fact that it is illegal." Cano said that under a legalized drugs system, "all that money that goes to intermediaries, to the soldiers and the police and the sailors, the customs authorities, the people who have the planes, all of that, which is what makes the prices so high, comes crashing down." "Thus humanity will be able to begin controlling with the aim of liquidating those narcotics." Colombian government pulls out of drugs conference Cano alleged that the possibility of U.S. interference in the internal affairs of Colombia was a result of the political manipulation of the war on drug trafficking. That, he said, worsened the situation. But there has been zero response to the FARC request from the U.S. government and Congress, to whom a letter on the drug-legalization proposal had been sent, he added. Meanwhile, the Colombian government of President Andres Pastrana has withdrawn from a rebel-hosted conference on the production of drug crops in the country after rebels allegedly detonated an explosive device on May 15, killing a dairy farmer and a policeman. FARC has denied that any of its fighters were in the area of the attack in central Boyaca province. The conference is to start on May 29 in the huge rebel-controlled southern enclave from which Pastrana pulled his troops as a gesture of peace. Ambassadors and delegates from 21 countries, including the United States, Canada and Europe, have been invited along with United Nations special adviser Jan Egeland. The Associated Press contributed to this report. - --- MAP posted-by: Don Beck