U.S.: COLOMBIA REBELS MISUSED ZONE

WASHINGTON -- The State Department on Thursday accused Colombia's leading
leftist guerrilla group of using a government-authorized demilitarized zone
to abuse prisoners, hold kidnap victims, and engage in narcotics trafficking.

Department spokesman Philip Reeker said the guerrilla group, known by its
Spanish initials as FARC, also reportedly received training in the zone
from members of the Irish Republican Army.

Reeker praised the efforts of President Andres Pastrana to achieve peace
but said the FARC rebels "have not made reciprocal efforts to further peace
and are misusing the demilitarized zone."

A high-level U.S. delegation is expected to raise American concerns about
the issue with Pastrana during talks Aug. 29-31 in Bogota. It will be the
first such U.S. mission to Colombia since the Bush administration took office.

A senior U.S. official said there will be no effort to urge Pastrana to
take back the zone.

Colombian police say three IRA members who were arrested in Colombia on
Aug. 11 had spent six weeks training rebel combatants in the demilitarized
zone. One was described by a U.S. official as a top bomb expert.

Another official said Secretary of State Colin Powell may stop in Colombia
after attending an Organization of American States foreign ministers
meeting in Peru on Sept. 10-11.

Shortly after taking office in 1998, Pastrana ceded the Switzerland-sized,
southern Colombian territory to the FARC, hoping the gesture would lead to
a serious effort to end long decades of civil war.

But there has been virtually no progress in talks with the FARC nor with a
smaller leftist guerrilla group, the National Liberation Army (ELN). Talks
with the ELN broke off earlier this month.

The United States has steered clear of involvement in the counterinsurgency
in Colombia but is playing a significant role in helping Colombian
counternarcotics efforts.

Congress approved $1.3 billion for Colombia last year, much of it for
military training and for high-performance helicopters needed to eradicate
coca, the raw material for cocaine.

The FARC and the ELN complain that Pastrana's government has done little to
reign in rightist paramilitary forces in Colombia.

Colombian and international monitors accuse the paramilitaries of
committing most of Colombia's human rights violations.

But both rebel groups have attacked civilian populations and carried out
kidnappings for ransoms. Both the FARC and the paramilitaries earn huge
profits in protection payments from cocaine and heroin producers.