Pubdate: Fri, 13 Oct 2000 Source: New York Times (NY) Copyright: 2000 The New York Times Company Contact: 229 West 43rd Street, New York, NY 10036 Fax: (212) 556-3622 Website: http://www.nytimes.com/ Forum: http://forums.nytimes.com/comment/ Author: Clifford Krauss COLOMBIAN REBELS SAID TO SEIZE 10 FOREIGN OIL WORKERS BUENOS AIRES, Oct. 12 - Members of the largest guerrilla group in Colombia kidnapped five American and five other foreign oil workers today in the Amazon region of Ecuador and hijacked a helicopter to take them across the Colombian border into territory they control, the Ecuadorean government said. The group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, has increasingly operated across Colombia's borders in recent months. The kidnapping today was the most brazen effort in what appears to be a campaign to instill fear in Colombia's neighbors that a planned offensive in southern Colombia in the coming months, backed by the United States, will spread the conflict. The kidnapping occurred hours before President Andres Pastrana of Colombia arrived in Argentina as part of a South American tour intended to increase regional support for his efforts to use greater military power to force two guerrilla groups to make concessions in peace talks. The seizure also seemed to bolster rebel assertions that United States military officials who arrive to train Colombian troops could be expected to be targets. "The FARC has claimed responsibility for the hostage taking in retaliation for Plan Colombia," Vice President Pedro Pinto of Ecuador told reporters, referring to a $7.5 billion Colombian anti-drug plan that includes 60 United States military helicopters and American training for a new Colombian army brigade to help eradicate coca fields in two southern Colombian provinces that the FARC occupies. The plan is also financed by European governments and international agencies. "The FARC dress like civilians and cross the border and do things like this," Mr. Pinto said. He told a radio station that the guerrillas captured the 11 hostages - including two French workers, an Argentine, a Chilean, a New Zealander and one Ecuadorean - at 4 a.m. local time at an oil workers' camp near Pompeya and whisked them away in a Super Puma helicopter owned by an Ecuadorean service company. The hostages work for two service companies contracted by Repsol-YPF, a Spanish-Argentine oil company, to perform geological surveys. A State Department official said the Ecuadorean had been kidnapped but quickly released. "We don't know much," the official said. "They were put in a helicopter - one of the captives is a pilot - and flown away. And we don't know where. But it is likely they took them to Colombia. We have to find out where they took them before we can do anything." The official declined to identify the hostages. A senior Clinton administration official said: "There have been incidents like this in northern Ecuador before where people have been kidnapped. It does bring up the issue of security for workers down there. It is a real concern." The kidnapping occurred 47 miles south of the border, suggesting that the rebels have the capacity to operate deep inside Ecuador. Spokesmen at Repsol-YPF in Buenos Aires said they were trying to confirm the reports. United States military officials recently warned that the FARC has made contact with and has influenced an Indian movement in Ecuador that helped overthrow a democratically elected president in Quito this year. The attack on foreign oil operations was carried out at a time the oil-based Ecuadorean economy is stumbling despite high oil prices. Recently the government asked Washington for increased aid to help feed and shelter an increasing number of Colombian refugees who are crossing the border to escape the fighting. Ecuador borders areas of Colombia with some of the highest concentrations of coca fields anywhere in South America, including the Putumayo Province, where American and Colombian military officials plan to focus an extensive eradication effort. The officials hope that eradicating the coca in Putumayo and adjacent Caqueta Province will deny the FARC valuable resources to finance their war. The FARC, the strongest, oldest and richest guerrilla group in Latin America, also makes a habit of kidnapping foreigners as well as Colombians to extract exorbitant payoffs. It has stepped up its activities, attacking one police station after another in the countryside since the United States Congress passed a $1.3 billion aid package four months ago. The FARC does not hold other American hostages, although three American missionaries seized three years ago are missing and widely believed to be dead. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens