BOMBING ADDS LEVERAGE TO BILL BOLSTERING COLOMBIA'S MILITARY

BOGOTA, Colombia, May 27 - A hotly debated anti-terrorism bill that
would give Colombia's public security forces broad new powers is
poised to gain ground after four people died last week in a bombing
outside a Bogota university.

To detractors - among them the United Nations, human rights groups and
at least two United States congressmen - the legislation would
undermine basic rights, insulate the military from outside scrutiny
and possibly spawn new paramilitary groups. Passage of the bill, they
argue, would signify that Colombia's leaders are more committed to
waging war than supporting a peace process that has broad
international backing.

To Colombia's military and its supporters, the legislation is seen as
a necessary and logical step.

The attack on Friday was the third major bombing this month in one of
Colombia's three most important cities. The attacks have killed 12
people and sparked fears that subversive groups have resorted to
indiscriminate bombings in urban areas.

Debate over the proposal has already prompted angry words, with one
key supporter, Senator Enrique Gomez, saying that by opposing the
legislation, human rights groups and the United Nations are helping
Colombia's leftist guerrillas.

In an interview, Mr. Gomez accused Anders Kompass, the Colombia
director for the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, of
"representing the guerrillas here, by the things that he says and what
he has done."

The bill, first drafted by Senator German Vargas and approved by the
Senate, would allow security forces to detain suspects up to seven
days without charges, to press civilians into quasi-military service
and to arrest people who have been singled out by fellow citizens as
criminals or subversives.

The bill exempts members of security forces from being investigated if
accusations of violations surface during operations against "criminal
organizations." It places responsibility with the military, instead of
government officials, for autopsies and investigations of rebels and
criminals killed in combat.

And it stipulates that a military affairs ombudsman would investigate
violations by security forces and take over investigations now carried
out by other entities in the government's ombudsman's office.

Now being debated in the lower house, the legislation has surprised
experts inside and outside the country because it comes at a time when
President Andres Pastrana's government has gone to great lengths to
portray the military as seriously committed to breaking ties with
right-wing paramilitary groups.

Colombia has received $1.1 billion from the United States in mostly
military assistance after some members of the American Congress were
assured that Colombia was making progress in human rights. The
European Union recently pledged an additional $300 million in social
spending after receiving similar assurances.

"To me, this is a radical departure from the direction we had hoped
that the Colombian government would go in," said Representative Bill
Delahunt, a Massachusetts Democrat who sits on the International
Relations Committee. Mr. Delahunt and Representative Sam Farr of
California wrote a letter to several leading members of the Colombian
Congress, saying future aid could be jeopardized if the bill passed.

Military officials have bristled at the criticism, arguing that
Colombia needs the legislation because current law has allowed a
flurry of unproved charges against security forces and hamstrung
military operations. "Colombia is a democratic state to the extreme,"
said Gen. Fernando Tapias, head of the armed forces, "and is combating
a grave problem with peace legislation."

Mr. Kompass, whose office raised concerns in letters to Mr. Pastrana
and the Congress, said that if the legislation passed, Colombia would
be in violation of international rights agreements it had signed.

"We always hear this complaint from the military, that it cannot be
more effective in combat against the guerrillas because its hands are
tied," he said. "If this becomes law, it would place Colombia in a
position that is contrary to the commitments in the area of rights."

However, the author of the bill, Senator Vargas, said his goal was not
to curtail rights. "We are trying to have a framework to confront a
situation that is not normal," he said. "We pretend to have a
legislation as if we were operating in Switzerland, but we are in Colombia."