Pubdate: Tue, Sept 21, 1999 Source: International Herald-Tribune Copyright: International Herald Tribune 1999 Contact: http://www.iht.com/ Author: Larry Rohter, New York Times Service COLOMBIA'S NEIGHBORS FEAR NEW SPREAD OF REBEL CONFLICT BOGOTA -- The recent kidnapping of a dozen foreign oil workers and tourists in Ecuador, apparently by Colombian rebels, has stirred new fears that this country's longstanding internal conflict is spilling beyond its borders and increasingly becoming a regional problem. Colombian guerrillas have used Ecuadoran territory as a rear base and supply area in the past, often smuggling arms and drugs across the border. But the kidnapping on Sept. I I was 30 kilometers (19 miles) inside Ecuador, an unusually deep penetration, and would be the largest operation the rebels have carried out there. Fears of the internationalization of Colombia's three-decade conflict have been growing in recent months, and the Ecuador kidnapping is certain to feed them. Colombian refugees fleeing heavy fighting have crossed into both Panama and Venezuela. Peru, following criticism of the Colombian government's efforts to negotiate a peace settlement with rebels, has stepped up the deployment of troops along its porous northern border with Colombia. Carlos Castano, the leader of Colombia's most feared rightist paramilitary death squad, also warned of plans to expand the conflict beyond Colombia in a letter last week to the government's chief peace negotiator. Accusing Panama's national guard of "working in open connivance with the rebel group in the border zone" to smuggle arms and drugs, he said his forces would now regard the Panamanian forces as a "military objective." After the abduction of the foreigners from a remote jungle zone, Ecuadoran troops clashed with the intruders, described as about 25 men and women in combat fatigues. An Ecuadoran soldier was killed in the confrontation, which has been followed by aerial and ground search operations by both Colombian and Ecuadoran troops. Neither of Colombia's main rebel groups has taken responsibility for the bold strike. But both Ecuadoran and Colombian officials have attributed it to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, this country's largest leftist rebel group, saying that the abductions bore all the hallmarks of its operations. The mass kidnapping was of the type known as "miraculous fishing," where guerrillas set up a roadblock along a main highway and take away all passengers who appear affluent enough to warrant a ransom. An American, eight Canadians and three Spaniards were kidnapped. In a statement, the rebel group denied involvement in the kidnapping, calling the assertion a "perverse slander," and accused the United States of seeking to internationalize the conflict. But the group has issued similar disclaimers before, most recently when three Americans working with Colombian Indian groups were kidnapped in February and then ordered killed by a rebel commander on suspicion that they were spies. - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D