Pubdate: Sat, 08 Jul 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://www10.nytimes.com/comment/ Section: International Author: Larry Rohter EARMARKED FOR COLOMBIAN REBELS, A REGION ASKS TO BE LEFT ALONE YONDO, Colombia -- For years, the people of this thriving little oil town on the bank of the Magdalena River complained that the authorities back in Bogota never paid them any attention. But now that they and their neighbors have suddenly become pivotal to a government plan to open peace talks with second-largest guerrilla group here, they want only to be left alone. When President Andres Pastrana announced the plan in April, it seemed a simple matter. To lure the Marxist rebels of the Army of National Liberation, or E.L.N., into negotiations, Yondo and two other municipalities north of here were to be turned into a "zone of encounter" under guerrilla control, with all army and police units withdrawn. There has never been a shortage of armed groups roaming this area. So the government apparently thought that an end of hostilities would be welcome. Left-wing guerrillas, right-wing paramilitaries and the military have all sought to control this resource rich and strategic region, the Middle Magdalena. And all have left casualties in their wakes. What the authorities in Bogota did not expect, though, was the popular resistance that has emerged. Soon after the announcement, thousands of protesters blocked the Pan American Highway, cutting off most commerce between central and northern Colombia. "If they really want to talk peace, all they need to negotiate is a table and chairs," said Leonel Uribe Hernandez, a municipal official here and a leader of the protest. "They don't need all this territory. If the E.L.N. leaders are worried about their safety, let them talk overseas, in Venezuela or Spain or Germany. But we don't want to be a part of this." After several weeks, Mr. Pastrana relented and agreed to a "dialogue" with residents. As part of a recent accord, the government has agreed to delay formally establishing the zone until undertaking "popular consultations," a phrase that the government seems to interpret as town meetings and workshops, but that residents take to mean a plebiscite. "This is a democracy, so let the people vote on this and let their will be respected," Councilman Nixon Arrieta said. "If they say yes, then fine. But I don't think that is likely to happen, because we have nothing to gain from this and everything to lose." The territory that the government has agreed to hand over is roughly the size of Delaware, or barely one-tenth the size of a separate demilitarized zone granted to the largest guerrilla group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. But the strategic importance of this area is much greater because it sits astride the country's main waterway and is within striking distance of a railway line and the Pan American Highway. "I don't know what the president was thinking," a teacher here said. "The E.L.N. has a long history of blowing up oil pipelines, power stations and transmission lines. And he wants to put them right across the river from the biggest oil refinery in the country," which processes the bulk of Colombia's gasoline and is in Barrancabermeja. Like the more sparsely populated FARC zone to the south, which is larger than Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island combined, this is cattle country and abounds in fertile pastures. But cows and water buffaloes have to graze alongside oil wells that produce millions of dollars a year in royalties. Farther north, the mountains of the Serrania de San Lucas have large deposits of gold, emeralds, nickel and mercury. The gold mines have been shut for years because of the violence but could easily reopen after the fighting stops and soon thereafter begin filling the coffers of the E.L.N., which has met with military reverses in recent months. The biggest and fastest-growing source of wealth in the area, however, is farming coca. The E.L.N. controlled drug trafficking here until 18 months ago, when it was violently supplanted by paramilitaries of the United Peasant Self-Defense force. And the E.L.N. would clearly like to regain the dominance and the revenues that it once enjoyed. "This is anything but a fight over ideology," said Mayor Danuil Mecera of San Pablo, a town an hour's boat ride north of here that is in the E.L.N. zone. "This is a struggle for economic control and power, pure and simple, between two illegal armed groups that only want to strengthen their position at the expense of the other." As government negotiations with protesters drag on, disgruntled E.L.N. forces are staying out of the towns and holing up in their mountain stronghold north of here. In a recent television interview, the senior commander, Nicolas Rodriguez Bautista, acknowledged that "there is much fear" of a peace zone but attributed that to "the pressure of paramilitary groups." Residents and local officials say their real concern is that violence may increase after the zone has been set up, because the accord between the government and the rebels excludes paramilitary forces. With the army and the police withdrawn, the critics said, residents would be even more likely to be caught in cross-fire between the rebels and adamant paramilitary units. "This territory is ours," said the local paramilitary leader, who is known as Comandante Julian. The fundamental problem, he added, is that "there are three states here, that of the guerrillas, the real one of the government and that of the self-defense forces." Nevertheless, he added, "We will respect what the population decides, and if they accept a zone, we will withdraw our troops." Hoping to win over the residents, the national government arranged for local officials to visit the FARC zone and talk with their counterparts and other residents there. But that effort backfired when the officials returned home with tales of extortion of businesses, summary executions, forced recruitment of teenagers and other guerrilla abuses. "We can see for ourselves what happened down there, and we've been contacted by people down there who tell us that we should fight by all means to prevent what happened to them from happening to us," a pharmacist in San Pablo said. "The FARC zone has become an independent country, and we don't want that happening here." - --- MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart