COLOMBIA LAUNCHES ANTI-COCA BATTALION

The Force, The Second Of Three, Was Trained With Help From U.S. Instructors
As Part Of A $1.3-Billion U.S. Aid Package

LARANDIA ARMY BASE, Colombia - A cannon blast marked the start of the
ceremony Friday at the sprawling military base deep in the jungles of
southern Colombia.

As 14 helicopters buzzed overhead, soldiers in camouflage face paint and
black berets marched through a cloud of yellow, blue and red smoke - the
colors of the, Colombian flag - toward the generals at the reviewing stand.
A Catholic priest in a white cassock then trudged across the waterlogged
field toward the formation, uttered a prayer and sprinkled holy water.

With that, Colombia graduated the second of three army battalions to'be
trained in counternarcotics warfare by U.S. Army Special Forces
instructors. The training, and hundreds of millions of dollars in American
aid for troop helicopters and other military hardware, form the centerpiece
of President Andres Pastrana's ambitious plan to root out the coca
cultivation that has fueled Colombia's civil conflict.

"A great responsibility rests on your shoulders," Colombian Defense
Minister Luis Fernando Ramirez told the graduating soldiers as high-
ranking American and Colombian military officials listened. "The hour has
arrived, as we've predicted, for this brigade to become the principal
headache for a small group of Colombians who have declared war on
40-million Colombians. "

The battalion of more than 600 soldiers received training under a $1.3-
billion U.S. aid package designed to stem drug production in Colombia and,
in the process, cut leftist rebels off from their main source of financing.
When a third battalion completes training in April, Colombia will have a
3,000- man anti-narcotics brigade to use in Colombia's coca heartland, the
southern jungle provinces of Putumayo and Caqueta.

For the soldiers who form Battalion No. 2, the graduation was a proud day.
It was a much-anticipated finale after four rigorous months of all-purpose
military and anti-narcotics training, in addition to instructions on how to
avoid entanglements involving non-combatants.

Sgt. Mauricio Garcia, an 11-year veteran who marveled at how much better a
soldier he has become with American instruction, said he was eager to swing
into action against coca laboratories and drug traffickers.

'We want to finish off the coca and hit them hard," Garcia said.

But both the soldiers and high-ranking Colombian and American officials
were under no illusions. The soldiers of the counternarcotics brigade are
expected to meet stiff resistance in the field, either from drug
traffickers or rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or
FARC. The rebel group, with an estimated 17,000 fighters nationwide, is
accused of making millions of dollars by taxing traffickers and running the
coca-processing tabs scattered throughout the jungle.

"When you start operations there will be battles," said Gen. Peter Pace,
commander of American forces in Latin America an a guest at the graduation
ceremonies. "From a peace standpoint this is not good, but from a long-term
perspective, you've got to do what the government of Colombia is trying to do."

Meanwhile, FARC on Saturday refused to resume peace spite the government's
move this week to appease the group by extending the time it can stay in
its stronghold.

The rebels said a freeze in peace talks it declared last month would remain
in effect until the government produces a plan to curb violence by rival
rightist paramilitaries.

"We hope the government will tell all Colombians and the international
community what its strategy is to fight the paramilitaries," FARC spokesman
Raul Reyes said.

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.