Pubdate: Fri, 09 Feb 2001
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Copyright: 2001 The Washington Post Company
Contact:  1150 15th Street Northwest, Washington, DC 20071
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Author: Scott Wilson

Talking Peace on Rebel Turf

Colombian President Goes To Jungle To See Guerrilla Chief

BOGOTA -- Seeking to salvage a faltering peace initiative, President Andres 
Pastrana ventured into a guerrilla-held patch of jungle today to sit with 
Colombia's most powerful rebel leader and look for a way to spare their 
battered country from a broader war.

Under a downpour in the steamy southern jungle, Pastrana huddled throughout 
the day with Manuel Marulanda, who has spent more than half his 70 years 
fighting the government as head of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of 
Colombia (FARC). The two embraced gingerly surrounded by rebels in 
camouflage uniforms in the Switzerland-size region that Pastrana cleared of 
security forces two years ago to foster peace talks. They then moved into a 
thatched pavilion for their discussions.

"Everyone wants peace," Marulanda said in a passing remark to a television 
reporter. "Hope is the last thing one loses."

The talks, held in the village of Los Pozos, about 200 miles south of 
Bogota, the capital, gave Pastrana and Marulanda what could be their last 
opportunity to revive the stalled peace process, Colombian officials said. 
Pastrana and Marulanda emerged late this afternoon and declared that the 
talks had been cordial and useful but that another day of discussions would 
be needed.

"We have decided to meet and continue this conversation tomorrow," said 
Pastrana, who planned to spend the night at a vacant military base near the 
meeting site. "The meeting was very productive, and we will continue working."

Standing at Pastrana's side, Marulanda said, "I feel very satisfied about 
this meeting and back the words of the president."

The meeting came at a perilous moment for Pastrana's peace campaign, which 
has long been viewed with skepticism in Washington. U.S. officials have 
promoted a harder line against the FARC, which they say has taken on a 
major role in drug smuggling. A key goal of the $ 1.3 billion U.S. 
anti-drug aid package for Colombia, the bulk of which is military hardware 
and training for anti-drug battalions, is to eliminate the cocaine 
production that is the FARC's chief source of revenue.

State Department spokesman Richard A. Boucher said in Washington that "the 
government of Colombia must be free to make its own decision on what would 
yield progress in the peace process. We have always said we would welcome 
developments that help Colombia move toward peace, national reconciliation 
and progress against narcotics traffic." But State Department officials 
said that, while wishing Pastrana well, they were not holding their breath.

Guerrilla negotiators withdrew from the peace talks in November and had 
refused to return unless Pastrana addressed the rising power of privately 
funded paramilitary groups that are battling the guerrillas. They had also 
requested a discussion of the effects of Plan Colombia, as the anti-drug 
strategy is known. Pastrana, elected in June 1998 on a pledge to end 
decades of civil war, must decide Friday whether to keep the demilitarized 
zone open or effectively abandon the peace process in favor of a military 
approach backed by an increasing number of Colombians.

A more bellicose strategy likely would increase civil conflict in a country 
that last year registered an average of 71 violent deaths a day. Pastrana's 
plunge into guerrilla territory with only a small contingent of bodyguards 
underscored his desire to keep even an imperfect peace process alive in 
light of its harsh alternative.

"He is trying to catch a bull by the horns," said Horacio Serpa, leader of 
the opposition Liberal Party. "If this process cannot be restarted after a 
meeting of these two men, then it is broken beyond repair."

In recent weeks, Pastrana has been under growing public pressure, 
particularly from conservatives, to secure concessions from the guerrillas 
in return for extending the term of the zone. The FARC has also come under 
pressure, primarily from European diplomats and international 
intermediaries, to rejoin the talks. Any guerrilla concession would help 
counter growing public opinion that the 17,000-member rebel group was 
participating in the process to bide time while it consolidated its armed 
strength across the country.

Pastrana, who called for the meeting last week, is seeking first to coax 
the FARC back to the peace table. He also hopes to arrange an exchange of 
rebel prisoners for captured members of Colombia's security forces, about 
450 of whom remain in FARC open-air prisons in the demilitarized zone.

The president is likely to propose that international observers be allowed 
to monitor the demilitarized zone for human rights abuses and, perhaps, to 
help mediate peace negotiations. A similar international presence was 
contemplated when Pastrana created the zone in November 1998, but FARC 
leaders have resisted.

Marulanda, known as "Sure Shot," agreed to meet Pastrana only if the agenda 
included Plan Colombia, a prisoner exchange accord and government plans to 
battle the rebels' paramilitary rivals, who are flourishing across the 
country. With an estimated 8,000 members, the paramilitary forces pose 
perhaps the biggest threat to the FARC.

Rebel negotiators left the peace table to protest what they alleged was the 
government's failure to take on the paramilitary groups, known as the 
United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, which also profit enormously from 
Colombia's drug trade. International human rights groups have called on the 
government to crack down on the paramilitary forces, accusing security 
forces of sometimes working with them against the guerrillas.

Marulanda, the son of a farmer, and Pastrana, the son of a president, have 
both benefited from their relationship. Marulanda publicly supported 
Pastrana's candidacy, making him the "peace candidate" and helping him win 
a close election. Before Pastrana took office in August 1998, he met with 
the guerrilla leader to signal the lengths he intended to go to secure peace.

The two men have met twice since but never with the stakes so high. Upon 
arriving in the zone with two physicians, a priest, his private secretary 
and his chief peace negotiator, Pastrana greeted Marulanda and walked among 
the rebels. At one point, a young female guerrilla darted out to drape a 
khaki-green raincoat over the president's shoulders, squeezing him 
affectionately in the process.

Staff writer Steven Mufson in Washington contributed to this report.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom