Pubdate: Mon, 2 Nov 1998
Source: Associated Press
Copyright: 1998 Associated Press
Author: Frank Bajak Associated Press

GUERRILLAS ATTACK POLICE GARRISON IN STATE CAPITAL

BOGOTA, Colombia -- Fighting raged all day Sunday in a remote southeastern
town after about 800 leftist rebels attacked a police base, killing at
least four police officers, wounding nine and cutting off communications.

The guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC,
rained homemade missiles on the police garrison in Mitu, capital of Vaupes
state, where 120 officers were stationed, Gen. Rosso Jose Serrano told a
news conference.

Serrano said the last radio contact with the garrision was at 2 p.m., eight
hours after the attack began. Such missiles, fired from modified propane
gas cylinders, were used in an Aug. 3 assault that leveled a police
anti-narcotics base in the same region.

Authorities said warplanes and Blackhawk helicopters were sent to aid the
besieged garrison but couldn't land at the town airport, which had been
seized by the rebels. Reinforcements were not expected until dawn Monday.

Serrano told reporters he could not confirm rumors of 60 dead police
officers. ``Only when the reinforcements arrive can we determine the
losses,'' he said.

The death toll was exected to rise, however, and it was feared dozens of
police had been captured.

Serrano said the rebels blew up Mitu's microwave tower at 5 a.m., cutting
off telephone communication, then attacked the police station.

Mitu, a city of 15,000 people near Colombia's border with Brazil, can only
be reached by air and water. Though no soldiers are based in Mitu, its
police post is well fortified and surrounded by barbed wire and trenches,
army spokesman Capt. Orlando Castano said.

The attack comes exactly a week before the government has promised to
withdraw all troops from a huge area of southern Colombia -- 16,200 square
miles -- to meet a FARC condition for getting peace talks under way. FARC
is the South American nation's largest and oldest rebel group.

No date has been announced for the talks and a letter from FARC commander
Manuel Marulanda to the government's chief negotiator, released Sunday,
alleges efforts were under way to undermine any attempt to convene them.

In the letter dated Oct. 20, Marulanda says ``the military high command has
created special commando units to sabotage the beginning of the dialogue,''
accusing them of planning to kill him and President Andres Pastrana at an
inaugural ceremony.

In the letter, which was sent to the Radionet network, Marulanda indicated
hooded soldiers were searching vehicles in the region.

The government's chief negotiator, Victor G. Ricardo, told The Associated
Press on Sunday that he had not received the letter. Ricardo returned
46riday with Pastrana from a three-day state visit to Washington.

The federal ombudsman said last week that paramilitary gunmen -- private
armies that have been linked to the military and kill alleged guerrilla
sympathizers -- had entered the zone and could imperil peace talks.

Before Sunday, the FARC was holding at least 248 soldiers and police
officers captive. It has asked the government to exchange them for 452
jailed rebels before peace talks commence. So far, Pastrana has refused. 
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Checked-by: Mike Gogulski