Pubdate: Thu, 07 Dec 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: Juan Forero REBEL CONTROL OF LARGE ZONE IN COLOMBIA IS EXTENDED BOGOTA, Colombia, Dec. 6--Despite flagging support for his peace efforts, President Andres Pastrana opted today to give the nation's largest rebel group an eight-week extension on the demilitarized zone that the government ceded to the rebels two years ago. Mr. Pastrana had until midnight to decide whether to let the rebels keep control of the zone--totaling 16,000 square miles in southern Colombia, the size of Switzerland--or retake it by force. With the extension, Mr. Pastrana is banking that government negotiators will be able to restart peace talks that have been all but dead since mid-November, when the rebels froze the talks to protest what they said was the government's inability to control right-wing paramilitary forces. The extension will last until January 31, said Camilo Gomez, the government's lead negotiator. "It is clear the extension is aimed at resolving the frozen dialogues and to advance humanitarian accords that we had been working on," he said. Mr. Gomez cautioned, however, that the extension came with conditions, namely restrictions on the entry of people and supplies into the demilitarized zone. News of the extension was made public about 15 minutes before midnight, after Mr. Pastrana met with members of the Colombian Congress, government ministers and foreign ambassadors, including Anne Patterson of the United States. "It's not an easy decision, but the president has a strong commitment to the peace process," Ms. Patterson said. "We all agree that a negotiated peace is the only way for Colombia." Mr. Pastrana's decision comes two years after his government, hopeful that the 36-year war could be ended, created the zone for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. In November 1998, the government pulled 2,500 troops out of the area in Caqueta Province. But that area has become a political liability for Mr. Pastrana. As peace talks sputtered, rebel attacks across the country mounted, many of them started from inside the territory, the government has said. The rebels are also accused of forcefully recruiting teenage fighters who lived in the zone and using the territory as a safe place to hold kidnapping victims. This week, a Colombian newsmagazine reported that Venezuelan military officials visited FARC leaders inside the zone, without Colombian government approval. Colombian and United States government officials have also accused the FARC of reaping millions of dollars inside the zone by taxing coca farmers and drug traffickers and running coca-processing labs. During his visit to Colombia last month, Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey, the United States drug policy coordinator, said that what happened in the FARC-controlled area was predictable. "It has been turned into an armed bastion of the FARC," Mr. McCaffrey said. "They're building roads, airfields. They're processing cocaine." - --- MAP posted-by: Josh Sutcliffe