Pastrana: Rebels broke off talks

 By JUAN O. TAMAYO

 BOGOTA, Colombia -- Nearing a total break in three years of fruitless negotiations with Colombia's largest guerrilla group, President Andrés Pastrana on Wednesday accused FARC rebels of breaking off the talks and said they have 48 hours to withdraw from their haven in the southern jungles.

 But Pastrana left a sliver of hope, telling Colombians in a nationwide televised address, ``This is not the end. I will keep open the doors of dialogue and negotiation
 because I am still convinced that this is the best way out.''

 Although FARC leaders denied they had ended the talks, military officers said they were on high alert and Colombian television reported the army was reviewing how to recapture the huge chunk of territory that Pastrana ceded to the FARC in 1998.

 Whatever the truth of the FARC walkout, it was clear that both Pastrana and the rebel commanders now believe they have exhausted virtually all the possibilities opened by the peace process that they launched on Jan. 7 1999.

 A break could sharply intensify Latin America's bloodiest civil war, a 36-year old conflict that claimed some 36,000 lives in the past decade alone.

 After hosting an emergency meeting with his Cabinet and opposition political leaders, Pastrana went on television to recount the many fruitless efforts and concessions he has made throughout the talks.

 "But for negotiations you need two, and the sad reality is that the FARC does not want to negotiate,'' he said, adding, ``The government understands that the FARC is no longer continuing in the process, as a a consequence they have 48 hours'' to clear out of their haven.

 His tough words won immediate praise even from opposition Liberal Party presidential hopeful Horacio Serpa, staunch defender of a peace process that has left most Colombians angry with its lack of progress.

 ``I am in favor of all peaceful options,'' Serpa told reporters. ``But it is time for all Colombians to embrace President Pastrana and support him in this time of crisis.''

 Pastrana's chief peace negotiator, Camilo Gómez, prompted the crisis Wednesday afternoon when he announced after meeting with FARC negotiators in the haven that ``the government understands that this insurgent group does not continue in the peace process.

 ``Therefore they have requested the 48 hours [to retreat from the region] that were agreed since the start of the zone,'' Gómez added before flying back to Bogotá to join Pastrana's emergency Cabinet session.

 Gómez urged the 100,000 already apprehensive residents of the FARC-controlled zone to remain calm. ``The government guarantees your security. Measures necessary to preserve order will be taken,'' he said.

 But armed forces spokesmen said units surrounding the FARC's 16,217 square mile haven, including an extra 2,500 soldiers deployed there this week, had been put on high alert, with all leaves canceled.

 MILITARY MEETINGS

 Senior officers of the U.S.-backed armed forces were reported holding hurried meetings across the nation to review and update plans for an assault on the FARC haven zone , one-third the size of Florida.

 And Satena airline, which alone flies into San Vicente del Caguán, the biggest town in the FARC-controlled region, immediately announced it had canceled its
 thrice-weekly flights until further notice.

 FARC leaders have accused Pastrana and his military of plotting to break off the peace process since Oct. 7, when the president extended the life of the haven until Jan. 20 but reinforced his military's presence around it, ordered intelligence gathering overflights and tightened controls on outside visitors.

 Colombians have increasingly complained that the FARC, while making virtually no concessions during the talks, had turned the zone into a military redoubt where it
 holds kidnap victims and recruits and trains fighters.

 Some FARC officials have recently told foreign contacts that the zone had outlived its purpose, allowing the rebels to grow from 12,000 to 17,500 fighters and receive clandestine arms shipments. FARC rebels also operate in about half of Colombia, a country seven times the size of Florida.

 But FARC peace negotiator Raúl Reyes told reporters in the zone that Gómez ``lied to the country'' when he said the FARC has asked for the 48 hours. Although
 Wednesday's meeting reached no agreement, he said, ``as always, the negotiations ended in an atmosphere of great harmony.''

 The FARC's official position, Reyes said as he read a brief statement to reporters, is to await Pastrana's decision on whether or not he will extend the life of the haven after Jan. 20.

 PEACE VILLAGE

 Gómez has spent several days in the peace village of Los Pozos, within the rebel zone, trying to persuade the rebels to abandon their boycott of the main talks they
 launched after Pastrana's Oct. 7 decisions.

 FARC chief Manuel "Tirofijo'' Marulanda asked Pastrana Tuesday to meet him for a peace summit Jan. 15 that would set a timetable for future negotiations, including talks on a possible cease fire.

 But at the same time he faxed letters to the military, Congress, the United Nations, the Catholic Church, labor unions and peasants threatening all-out war if the talks fail.

 FARC patrols now move through about half the Colombian countryside, while the 3,500 fighters of the also Marxist-oriented National Liberation Army, or ELN, operates in several smaller enclaves.

                                    © 2002