COLOMBIA URGES REBELS TO TALK

BOGOTA, Colombia - The Colombian government, desperate for concessions as
President Andres Pastrana's popularity hits all-time lows, urged the
country's biggest rebel group yesterday to renew peace talks.

Pastrana came to office two years ago pledging to seek an end to Colombia's
long, bloody civil war, now in its 36th year. But after ceding a
Switzerland-sized zone of southern Colombia to the rebels to propel the
process forward, the talks have gone nowhere.

The period of rebel dominion over the zone expires Dec. 7, which leaves
Pastrana with a crucial decision: He must either decide to extend the time
period - which would be granting the rebels yet another concession - or
send in his troops.

The leftist rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, pulled
out of peace talks a week ago to protest U.S. military aid and a lack of
government action against the rightist paramilitary forces that also roam
the Colombian countryside. FARC member Olga Lucia Marin said in Caracas,
Venezuela, that the freeze on peace talks would continue until Pastrana's
government takes "measures against the paramilitaries."

Government peace envoy Camilo Gomez went on national radio yesterday and
appealed to the FARC to return to the negotiating table.

"We must hold negotiations in an explicit manner," Gomez said. "We have
been carrying them on for two years now, and without a doubt the way to
have Colombians regain their confidence about the process is to arrive at
agreements . . .such as a cease-fire."

Pastrana risks losing face - and the remains of his dwindling popularity,
including among the military - if he grants an extension to the
demilitarized zone without rebel concessions.

According to October surveys, Pastrana had a popularity rating of 22
percent, the lowest ever for a Colombian leader. A main complaint is his
handling of the war, which claims an estimated 3,000 lives annually, most
of them civilians killed by the leftist rebels and paramilitary groups.

The rebels, meanwhile, are using the demilitarized zone to hold hundreds of
hostages and prisoners of war. They also foster coca production in the
region and "tax" the cocaine-producing industry.

During a visit to Colombia this week, White House drug czar Barry McCaffrey
said the demilitarized zone has "turned into an armed bastion of the FARC."

Gomez said the rebels had no cause to halt the peace talks and insisted the
government is opposed to the paramilitary forces. However, despite
government assertions that it is severing informal ties between the
military and the paramilitary United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, or
AUC, cooperation between the two is evident.

While government troops hunt down leftist rebels, AUC gunmen prowl through
towns in the war zones unmolested. Many paramilitary members are former
soldiers.

"We are tired of all this complicity of the establishment with the
paramilitary forces," FARC leader Manuel "Sureshot" Marulanda said in an
interview with the Communist newspaper, Voz.