Pubdate: Wed, 23 Jan 2002
Source: Reuters (Wire)
Copyright: 2002 Reuters Limited

COLOMBIAN FARC REBELS FIRED ON U.S. HELICOPTER

BOGOTA, Colombia (Reuters) - Marxist guerrillas fired on a U.S. government 
helicopter involved in an anti-drug mission in Colombia and five Colombian 
policemen were killed in a subsequent rescue operation, police said on 
Wednesday. The incident took place last Friday when a State Department 
UH-1N helicopter, piloted by a civilian contractor, came under machine-gun 
fire from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and was forced 
to make an emergency landing, Colombia's anti-drug police chief Gen. 
Gustavo Socha said. The pilot, a Peruvian citizen who works for DynCorp, a 
Pentagon contractor hired in the U.S.-funded war against drugs in Colombia, 
was evacuated unhurt along with the rest of the crew. However, five 
Colombian police officers sent to rescue the helicopter were killed in a 
fierce battle with some 300 heavily-armed FARC rebels, Socha said. A 
Colombian warplane then destroyed the helicopter with bombs to prevent it 
from falling into rebel hands, he said. A U.S. embassy official said the 
helicopter had made an emergency landing near a FARC safe haven in southern 
Colombia. He said no American citizens were on board.

The official did not confirm that the aircraft had come under fire and said 
only that it had had "technical problems". The helicopter was escorting 
crop dusters spraying herbicide on coca crops, used to produce cocaine. 
Based in Reston, Virginia, DynCorp has over 300 employees in Colombia, 
including many Americans and citizens of Peru and Central American countries.

The company provides crop duster and helicopter pilots, mechanics and 
paramedics in President Andres Pastrana's U.S.-funded anti-cocaine "Plan 
Colombia". "The helicopter was hit during an attack by the FARC. A failure 
in its hydraulic system forced it to make an emergency landing," Socha told 
Reuters. The incident, which the official in the U.S. embassy said occurred 
during a "routine eradication mission," highlights the dangers of U.S. 
companies and citizens getting involved in Colombia's drug war. MILITARY 
TARGETS The 17,000-member FARC has declared U.S. civilian "mercenaries" in 
the war on drugs to be military targets. Last February, another State 
Department helicopter carrying U.S. DynCorp employees was fired upon by 
FARC rebels during an operation to rescue a Colombian police helicopter. No 
one was killed. The United States is pouring in more than $1 billion in 
mainly military aid to help Pastrana wipe out drug production in Colombia, 
which is gripped by a 38-year old war increasingly funded by the cocaine 
trade. The aid, which includes the delivery of Black Hawk helicopters and 
training of anti-narcotics police, is restricted so far to the war on 
cocaine and heroin production. Some voices on Capitol Hill are pressing for 
Washington to accede to Colombia's request to be allowed to use the aid for 
counter-insurgency operations as well. On Thursday, four government 
security agents and six FARC rebels were killed when the guerrillas 
ambushed policemen in southwestern Colombia even as government and rebel 
negotiators met to start negotiating a cease-fire accord by April 7. The 
rebels agreed on Sunday to negotiate a cease-fire -- hours before a 
government deadline expired.

It was hailed as the most significant achievement in three years of 
tortuous peace talks aimed at ending a war that has claimed 40,000 lives in 
the past decade. The rebels, who traditionally accompany military activity 
with peace gestures in the drawn-out negotiations to wrest concessions, 
also blew up two electrical towers near the capital Bogota on Wednesday.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom