COLOMBIAN REBELS ARMING CIVILIANS TO FEND OFF OFFENSIVE

FARC is trying to protect land that's a source of revenue from oil firms
and coca.

ARAUQUITA, Colombia -- Leftist guerrillas say they are showing peasant
farmers in the oil-rich plains of eastern Colombia how to fight and build
bombs in an effort to fend off an offensive by a feared paramilitary group.

The move by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, in Arauca
state marks an escalation in Colombia's war, in which civilians are often
caught in the cross-fire but usually flee rather than fight.

The guerrillas are teaching peasants military tactics, as well as how to
make homemade land mines and other crude weapons, said Felipe Rincon, the
FARC commander in Arauca. He added that FARC is "in the process" of
acquiring more sophisticated weapons for civilians.

"We are developing 'people's weapons' and providing training," Rincon said.
"Hundreds of people are coming forward." He did not specify how many people
were being trained.

The decision reflects the desperation of the leftist rebels to hang on to
Arauca, which produces huge revenue for them in the form of extortion from
oil companies and "taxes" on fields of coca, from which cocaine is made.

FARC appears haunted by the loss 10 months ago of the central Colombian oil
boomtown of Barrancabermeja to the paramilitaries, and is bent on
preventing the same thing from happening in Arauca.

"That experience demonstrated that people must prepare themselves to defend
what they have been building all their lives," Rincon said.

The outlaw paramilitary group, known by its Spanish initials AUC, is
thought to be financed by landowners eager to rid their areas of the
guerrillas. It regularly massacres civilians suspected of aiding the
guerrillas.

The AUC heralded its push into Arauca last summer with a wave of selective
killings. In October, the AUC even shot dead a congressman and a former
congressman from Arauca, accusing both of being rebel collaborators.

One peasant farmer said he had taken 10 days of military training along
with a dozen other men at a secret location in the sweltering plains.

Sporting a mustache, the diminutive farmer - who, for security reasons,
gave his name only as Giovanni - said he planned to return for more
training "so that I am prepared to defend myself."

Residents in Arauca hurry home each day before a rebel-imposed 6 p.m.
curfew. On a recent late afternoon, a farmer flagged down a truck on a
rural road and clambered into the rear.

"What a relief," said the farmer, who gave his name only as Carlos.
Nervously eyeing others in the back of truck, Carlos murmured to a reporter
that the rebels have been known to kill curfew violators as they struggle
to maintain control over this sparsely populated region of grasslands and
broad rivers.

After the paramilitary incursion began, the rebels declared an "armed
blockade," banning all vehicles from the roads of Arauca and burning the
vehicles of violators.

But the traffic ban caused some $15 million in losses to trucking companies
and other businesses, said Arauca Chamber of Commerce President Carlos
Gaona, and inconvenienced most everyone.

The rebels dropped the armed blockade in mid-October after 19 days.

Many campesinos, or peasant farmers, say they're reluctant to ask the army
for protection from the paramilitary fighters.

Despite government efforts to sever links between the army and the AUC,
some soldiers still secretly help the paramilitaries, who view the rebels
as a common enemy.

Army Col. Gustavo Matamoros denied there are army-AUC links in Arauca, and
said his troops would fight both.

Matamoros said he was unaware of reports that the FARC was training
campesinos, but made clear that anyone picking up a gun would be fair game
for security forces.

"If the campesinos arm themselves, they are no longer civilians," Matamoros
said. "They become military targets."

Colombia's 37-year war pitting leftist guerrillas, right-wing
paramilitaries and the army claims at least 3,500 lives a year.