Pubdate: Tue, 11 Jul 2000 Source: International Herald-Tribune (France) Copyright: International Herald Tribune 2000 Contact: 181, Avenue Charles de Gaulle, 92521 Neuilly Cedex, France Fax: (33) 1 41 43 93 38 Website: http://www.iht.com/ Author: Larry Rohter, New York Times Service ENVOY 'HERDING CATS' IN COLOMBIA Drugs, Money And 2 Sets Of Guerrillas Challenge UN Negotiator BOGOTA -He organized the "Norwegian channel," which led to a peace plan between Israelis and Palestinians, and he has had a hand in peace talks from Central America to Central Africa. Now, as a UN emissary in Colombia, Jan Egeland is leading efforts here to solve a 35-year conflict unlike any he has seen. "What is unique in Colombia comtared with most other processes is the size and scale of the armed actors and armed conflict, and the size of the black money associated with drugs and other criminal activities," Mr. Egeland said in an interview here recently. "So the sources fueling the conflict are bigger than they have been in many other places, and that makes it more challenging." Officially, his title is merely that of special adviser to the secretary-general on international assistance to Colombia. But after just six months on the job, Mr. Egeland, 42, has emerged as a trusted intermediary between the Colombian government and left-wing guerrilla groups, which until recently agreed on one thing: They did not want any foreigners in the negotiations. "In Colombia we have always had the fear that internationalizing the peace process would also mean internationalizing the conflict, so we were suspicious of outsiders wanting to enter," said Fernando Cepeda Ulloa, a former interior minister. "So Egeland's presence here is a good thing because it means a barrier has been breached- " Mr. Egeland, who has been a journalist, deputy foreign minister of Norway and a Red Cross official, is careful to play down his own role. "We have no formal third-party role vis-a-vis the Colombian conflict, nor are we seeking one," he said. "It may be premature to say that we are facilitating any kind of peace process, because none of the parties have asked anyone to really play that kind of an activist role." Still, Mr. Egeland has been instrumental in "attempting to get the guerrillas out of the jungle and into the modern world," said Cynthia Arnson, editor of a new book, "Comparative Peace Processes in Latin America." As in Guatemala,, she noted, here you had "a guerrilla movement that was so isolated politically and had operated so long in clandestinity that it had lost touch with politics and public opinion and needed to be reacclimated. " While both the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Guatemalan guerrillas were nearly bankrupt when they began peace talks, here the two main insurgent forces are flourishing as a result of their links with drug trafficking, kidnappings and extortion. In addition, the biggest group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, has formally been given control of an area the size of Switzerland and now seems to want to deal with the government on almost a state-to-state level. "Our situation is very odd and ambiguous, in that there is a coexistence between the government and the guerrillas that I don't see elsewhere," said Mr. Cepeda Ulloa. "Thatmakes Egeland's job more difficult, in that the guerrillas think it perfectly natural to ask the state for territory or the international community for financing." But Mr. Egeland said that in other respects, the issues in Colombia are not as intractable as elsewhere. "It is more difficult to negotiate Jerusalem than agrarian reform in Colombia," he said. "Oneof the positive aspects of Colombia compared with other places is that the parties are not necessarily so much poles apart on some of the issues as many believe." The Revolutionary Armed Forces and the other main left-wing guerrilla group, the Army of National Liberation, are engaged in separate but parallel negotiations with the government. "Later on," Mr. Egeland said, "there should be a convergence"of the two sets of talks because "in the end there is only one country and society to reform." In an essay in "Herding Cats," a new book about peacemaking, Mr. Egeland writes that he agrees with the refusal of the government here to negotiate with right-wing paramilitary groups because they are "criminal terrorist organizations that should only be met with to discuss the laying down of arms." He added, "therandom killing of fellow citizens in a society should not lead to negotiations in the presidential palace." He softened his tone somewhat in the interview. The paramilitaries have "little political content, and a big human-rights violation content," so "they should he treated differently from other actors." But, he added, "one should not be categorical about leaving anyone in or out" of the peace negotiations. - --- MAP posted-by: greg