Pubdate: Sat, 23 Feb 2002
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2002 The New York Times Company
Section: International
Contact:  http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: Juan Forero

COLOMBIAN TROOPS BEGIN RETAKING REBEL-HELD TERRITORY

FLORENCIA, Colombia, Feb. 22 -- Elite government troops landed by 
helicopter today inside a swath of southern jungle that President Andres 
Pastrana ceded to Marxist rebels three years ago as a safe haven so peace 
talks could take place. The soldiers were the first of thousands expected 
as the army works to retake the zone now that Mr. Pastrana has broken off 
the talks.

The soldiers occupied a former military base just outside San Vicente del 
Caguan, one of five towns north of here that had been in the hands of the 
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (known by its Spanish acronym, FARC) 
since 1998.

Hundreds of troops have also entered the eastern end of the zone, while 
thousands more waited outside the former rebel enclave for orders to enter. 
The overall size of the government force is estimated at 12,000.

"We are now in the zone; we now control the zone," one elated soldier told 
Colombian television as he walked the streets outside San Vicente.

But although most of the guerrillas responded to the offensive by 
disappearing into the jungle, some shot at helicopters this morning, 
hitting three aircraft and wounding two soldiers and a pilot, Gen. Fernando 
Tapias, chief of the armed forces, told reporters at the Defense Ministry 
in Bogota this morning. He suggested that the takeover of the region would 
be slow, since the military was wary of anti-personnel mines on the roads 
and the possibility of rebel ambushes.

The offensive came two days after Mr. Pastrana, furious about the rebel 
hijacking of a domestic airliner early this week and the kidnapping of a 
senior senator who was a passenger, announced in a nationally televised 
address that he was ending the troubled peace process. Soon after his 
speech, air force planes began bombarding rebel encampments and storage 
depots inside the zone, which is about twice the size of El Salvador.

The offensive has raised concerns among rights groups and some foreign 
diplomats, as reports have surfaced of civilians hurt and killed in the 
attacks. About 100,000 people live in the former rebel zone.

"The military objectives are not apparent, since the FARC is not in the 
region anymore," said Marco Romero, who works with Codhes, an advocacy 
group for people displaced by violence. "It is probable there are civilians 
living there or at least close to the zones that were bombed."

General Hector Velasco, the air force chief, said that warplanes were being 
careful to go after only "military targets and narcotrafficking network 
targets." But he acknowledged that the bombing could not be precise in all 
circumstances.

"Unfortunately accidents can happen," he told reporters today, noting that 
hundreds of sorties had been conducted. The International Committee of the 
Red Cross said it had transported five wounded civilians today to the San 
Vicente Hospital, along with three bodies. The victims had come from a 
jungle hamlet called El Rubi, where some of the bombing apparently took place.

James LeMoyne, the United Nations special envoy to Colombia, said that he 
had received "reports of civilian casualties, civilian deaths, wounded 
people who cannot be attended in outlying areas and hundreds, maybe 
thousands of people, being displaced."

Mr. LeMoyne also said the United Nations was concerned that, with the 
departure of the rebels, rightist paramilitary groups would enter the zone 
and kill civilians. The paramilitaries -- outlawed militias that human 
rights groups accuse of collaborating with the army -- have often killed 
shopkeepers, local officials and others they have accused of collaborating 
with rebels.

"The people of the zone were not consulted on the creation of the zone," 
Mr. LeMoyne said, "but they participated in it and it's unfair that they 
now be punished for a decision that was not their own."

Colombian officials, meanwhile, say the guerrillas have been busy across 
the country, setting off bombs an electrical installation in the south and 
a gas pipeline in the north. Many Colombians, while supporting Mr. 
Pastrana's decision to break off talks, feared that the rebels might embark 
on terror bombings in the largest cities, which have been spared much of 
the violence that has plagued the countryside.

Fears have also spread beyond Colombia about the possible spillover of 
violence. The Ecuadorean president, Gustavo Noboa, has declared a state of 
emergency in one northern province bordering Colombia, which will allow the 
central government in Quito to release funds quickly in case of a crisis. 
In Brazil and Venezuela, the governments announced that troops along 
Colombia's border had been placed on alert.

The rebels have neither denied nor taken responsibility for the various 
attacks, but they have blamed Mr. Pastrana for the rupture in the talks. 
Today they said in a statement that they would still be willing to 
negotiate, but only with the winner of the presidential election in May. 
Mr. Pastrana is constitutionally barred from re-election.

Rebel activities and pronouncements have drawn little but scorn from most 
Colombians and the international community, which in the past has played a 
vigorous role in trying to keep the troubled peace process alive.

Those familiar with the rebel group said it was hard to believe that the 
top leaders in the organization had no advance knowledge of the hijacking 
this week. The guerrilla commandos who took over the plane are members of 
the Teofilo Forero front, which is led by Joaquin Gomez, a key rebel 
negotiator.

"There is no way a high-level operation of this kind was committed without 
the direct knowledge of the secretariat," said a diplomat who has spoken 
with rebel leaders several times.

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell told reporters today that Washington 
supported Mr. Pastrana's decision to retake the zone.
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