Stalled talks spur tensions

 By JUAN O. TAMAYO

 BOGOTA, Colombia -- Stepping back from the brink of all-out war, President Andrés Pastrana on Thursday gave FARC rebels 48 hours to resume peace talks while guerrilla leaders urged a U.N. envoy to help revive the stalled negotiations.

 But Pastrana warned that if the FARC refuses to restart talks by his deadline, he will abolish at 9:30 a.m. Monday the Switzerland-size haven he ceded to the rebels in 1998 -- and presumably order his military to recapture the region.

 Some 1,000 troops moved to a base closer to the FARC safe haven in southern Colombia and armed forces commanders said they had finalized plans to assault the
 region, a move that would likely trigger a bloody intensification of a civil war that already claims 3,600 lives per year.

 Looking stern in his second nationally televised address in as many days, Pastrana said he had agreed to the ``maximum and unextendable'' delay to give U.N. envoy
 James LeMoyne ``a prudent time'' to meet with FARC leaders.

 Pastrana's delay and a FARC statement earlier in the day bought time for fresh attempts to resolve the impasse that led the president to issue an ambiguous statement Wednesday that appeared to give Colombia's largest guerrilla group 48 hours to withdraw from the safe haven.

 The statement read by Raúl Reyes, spokesman for the Revolutionary Armed Forces, or FARC, said the rebels had not broken off the talks and wanted a ``clarification'' of Pastrana's Wednesday ultimatum.

 REPEATS DEMAND

 Reyes also repeated the FARC demand that led to the deadlock -- the reversal of Pastrana's Oct. 7 decision to tighten security around the zone amid growing complaints that the rebels were using it to stash kidnap victims and expand and train their fighting units.

 But Pastrana said those measures ``are not negotiable'' and added that the FARC ``today have the responsibility of deciding whether or not they continue in the peace process.''

 Interior Minister Armando Estrada had earlier indicated that Pastrana was backing off his Wednesday ultimatum, telling reporters that the president and his Cabinet ``don't want to reach the point of formally declaring [the peace process] broken.''

 Estrada added that before Pastrana orders the FARC out of the haven he would have to sign documents officially ending the FARC-run zone that covers an area a third the size of Florida and five mostly jungle municipalities with some 100,000 residents.

 CAUTION URGED

 Meanwhile, LeMoyne, the U.N. envoy for Colombian peace efforts, said he did not believe the peace talks were irretrievably broken and urged both the government and FARC to avoid words or actions that could worsen the crisis.

 ``I am convinced that there's time . . . and proposals on the table to jump-start the negotiations, LeMoyne told reporters in Bogotá after meeting with Pastrana and
 contacting FARC leaders by telephone.

 ``I know the FARC wants to negotiate,'' LeMoyne added, declining to go into details on the proposals on the table but saying that they did not include bringing in the
 United Nations to mediate the talks.

 U.N. ROLE SOUGHT

 FARC spokesman Reyes said the 17,500-strong Marxist guerrilla had been in contact with LeMoyne to urge the United Nations to become involved in seeking a way to break the impasse in the peace talks.

 U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said in Washington that he hoped the FARC ``recognizes that it is its failure to negotiate in seriousness that has caused this crisis,'' and added Washington will support any Pastrana decision.

 The talks have seemed on the verge of collapse several times since they were launched in 1999, but Wednesday was the first time that either side threatened to end the demilitarized zone.

 While the statements by Pastrana, Estrada, LeMoyne and the FARC appeared to at least postpone the latest crisis somewhat, there were persistent fears that a final
 break in the peace talks would heat up the civil war.

 A dozen helicopters and dozens of trucks carrying some 1,000 soldiers were seen arriving late Thursday at a military base in Villavicencio, 40 miles north of the FARC zone, and armed forces commanders met all day at another base in Larandia, 30 miles west of the zone.

                                    © 2002