FARC won't tell Colombia to cut security at zone

 BY NANCY SAN MARTIN

 SAN VICENTE DEL CAGUAN, Colombia -- President Andrés Pastrana and FARC guerrillas agreed Monday to continue peace talks, less than five hours before a deadline for the rebels to abandon their government-approved haven and get ready for war.

 Few details of the deal were released other than what French Ambassador Daniel Parfait called a commitment by both sides to ``soon reach concrete accords.''

 ``The conditions exist to relaunch, in an immediate way, the peace process in Colombia,'' said Parfait, representing the group of 10 countries that has acted as friendly advisors to the Colombian peace process for the past year.

 Parfait said Pastrana and the leadership of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, have accepted the statement. He made the announcement flanked by James LeMoyne, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan's special advisor on Colombia.

 FARC spokesman Raúl Reyes told reporters in Los Pozos, the southern village where the peace talks are normally held, that the Marxist guerrillas accept ``the terms in the declaration'' read by Parfait ``and supported by the United Nations.''

 Pastrana, in an address to the country Monday night, said the reason the peace process was saved was because the FARC dropped its demand that the government
 scale back on heightened security in the zone, a point of contention that Pastrana has said is not negotiable.

 The president said talks would resume in earnest with a call for a cease-fire and an end to kidnappings. Though he defended the 3-year-old peace process, Pastrana
 warned that continuation was only justifiable if ``concrete results'' are reached.

 He said the FARC now has until Jan. 20 to ``win the trust of the Colombian population.'' That is the expiration date of the safe zone the government had agreed to before talks collapsed.

 ``We have less than a week,'' Pastrana said. ``This is a defining moment.''

 Pastrana's chief peace negotiator, Camilo Gómez, flew back to the FARC-run haven to put the finishing touches on the new agreement.

 Late Monday, Gómez announced that formal talks would begin on Wednesday.

 `VIVA' PEACE

 When Reyes made his announcement of the accord, he was greeted by applause and shouts of ``Viva'' among peace supporters. They had gathered at Los Pozos, a
 two-hour drive from San Vicente del Caguán, the largest town in the FARC sanctuary, 180 miles south of Bogotá and one-third the size of Florida.

 Parfait and the ambassadors from Canada, Sweden, Cuba, Norway, Spain, Mexico, Italy, Switzerland and Venezuela, the so-called ``group of 10,'' drafted a compromise document that was presented to Pastrana for review about 4:30 p.m.

 Pastrana had given the FARC until 9:30 p.m. Monday to resume the peace talks or withdraw from the zone and clear the way for the reentry of government troops, ordered out by Pastrana in late 1998 as a confidence-building measure for the negotiations that began in early 1999.

 But despite the action Monday, many remained pessimistic that the talks would remain on track.

 Some analysts said the U.S. government had played a behind-the-scene role in pushing for an end to the three years of unproductive talks. Pastrana also has been
 getting increasing pressure to abandon the negotiations from Colombia's business sector and the military.

 ``He's sort of backed up into a corner,'' said Arlene Tickner, an international relations professor at University of the Andes in Bogotá. ``For some time now, the U.S. has become frustrated with the peace process.''

 Other analysts pointed to Pastrana's puzzling rejection of a FARC offer during the weekend to resume peace talks, use the haven ``solely'' for holding peace talks and shift a dispute over tightened government security measures -- the issue at the core of the FARC's decision to suspend the talks last October -- to a side panel so that it would not hold up the main negotiation.

 Although they did not completely drop their demands that the government ease the security measures, the offer to send the issue to a panel was viewed by some as a
 concession that Pastrana would normally have accepted.

 FARC'S OFFER

 Pastrana's rejection of FARC's offer ``must mean that something was already in motion,'' said Adam Isacson, a senior associate at the Washington-based Center for
 International Policy who follows Colombia.

 ``I think that the message that's been clear is that the U.S. does not see the peace process as working and if Colombia resorts to an all-out war they would have the full support of the United States,'' he added in a telephone interview.

 Other observers said that while U.S. officials have conveyed their dissatisfaction with Pastrana's peace talks with a group that Washington labels as a terrorist
 organization, the decision on their future rests solely with the Colombian president.

 ``The U.S. administration is focused on what comes next in Colombia,'' said Michael Shifter, vice president of the Inter-American Dialogue, a policy think tank in
 Washington. ``The U.S. will support whatever Pastrana decides.''

 Throughout the day, as the military awaited orders to move in and recapture the zone, rebels arrived in San Vicente del Cagun to stock up on food and medicine.

 ``We have to be ready for anything,'' said one FARC soldier who declined to give his name.

 The stockpiling served as an indication that if the talks do fail, it could lead to more intensified fighting and bloodshed in a 38-year civil war that claims about 3,600 lives a year.

 The conflict pits the U.S.-backed military and a brutal right-wing paramilitary group against the FARC and smaller guerrilla factions. Analysts predict increased attacks by Colombia's paramilitary forces, grouped under the umbrella of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, or AUC.

 APPREHENSION

 In San Vicente, a sense of apprehension hung over the population of about 80,000.

 Some stood around a public transport office, waiting to leave the zone. None would say they were leaving because they feared for their lives, but the manager of the office said more people had left on Monday than any other day since the crisis began.

 The fleet of about 30 cars that shuttle between San Vicente and towns outside the zone left full in the morning and had not returned by midday.

 ``They won't come back empty, and I'm sure they can't find anyone who wants to come into San Vicente today,'' said the manager, who would not give his name.

 At the central telephone office, residents called friends and family to assure them they would be fine. Hundreds of others piled into pickups to take the long dusty road to Los Pozos, the headquarters of negotiations.

 They waved white and Colombian flags, chanted ``Peace Yes, War No,'' and sang the national anthem.

 After the deal was announced, LeMoyne went over jubilantly to one of the pro-peace groups, raised a small girl in his arms and gave her a kiss.

 Asked what the next step would be, LeMoyne quipped: ``Peace.''

 Special correspondent Sibylla Brodzinsky contributed to this article from San Vincente de Caguán.

                                    © 2002