COCA CONFLICT IN COLOMBIA SNARES THE INNOCENT

SAN MIGUEL, Colombia, Nov. 6 - The 16 cars were lined up in a row, their
drivers pushed to the side of the road at gunpoint. Then the rebel leader
waved his weapon and gave an order, "Get the gasoline, and start lighting."

Moments later, one vehicle after another was ablaze, with black plumes of
smoke filling the blue sky. The Colombian guerrillas, AK-47's hanging from
their shoulders, ran from exploding Toyota jeeps and old Ford trucks as the
stunned owners watched silently.

The drivers had merely wanted to pick up some food and fuel in neighboring
Ecuador and return to their homes. But in doing so they had flouted the
most basic of laws here in Putumayo, a Vermont-sized province of
coca-growing jungle and a crucial battleground in the country's civil
conflict. The Marxist rebels have banned everyone from traveling Putumayo's
rocky roads, strangling the local economy.

The upheaval underscores the challenge that President Andres Pastrana faces
as he works with the American government in imposing a $7.5 billion plan to
curtail the lucrative coca trade and weaken the rebels.

For all the financial and military aid that Washington is providing, much
of the countryside in Putumayo is controlled by the rebels. Guerrillas
patrol the smaller communities, and their roadblocks have resulted in
dwindling food supplies in many communities.

Guerrilla checkpoints - typically a handful of men standing by the side of
the road with AK-47's and jugs of gasoline - seem to pop up anywhere.
Behind every turn a driver risks losing his car or worse.

"They just took it, and this is all I have, these keys," said Javier
Pimiento, 22, who was only a few hundred yards inside Colombia from the
bridge to Ecuador when he was ordered from his car. "I feel terrible. I
can't even bring food home. They have a conflict going, but why get us
involved?"

The rebels are unfazed by the fact that the villagers they profess to
support have suffered in this latest of several vehicle burnings. They
justified their actions by saying the drivers had been ferrying military
provisions.

This sparsely populated corner of the country has become hotly contested
because about half of Colombia's coca crop is grown here. With the province
a major focus of the government's anti-drug plan, American-trained
counterinsurgency battalions, working with the national police, will by
next year take aim at the drug traffickers and laboratories that process
coca leaves into the paste used to make cocaine.

But it won't be easy, the government concedes.

Col. Gabriel Diaz, commander of the Colombian military's 24th Brigade in
Putumayo, said the burning of cars and trucks by the guerrillas was
intended to make it more difficult for the government to attack the cocaine
industry.

"They want the people to feel hunger," the colonel said, "and possibly
provoke a protest and a confrontation with the government forces."

For their part, the rebels say the destruction is meant to send a message
to the government in Bogota: rein in the paramilitary gunmen. Paramilitary
forces have been battling the rebels in Putumayo in a series of ferocious
skirmishes since September.

"We have to show them that we're a force," said a rebel leader who goes by
the nom de guerre Olbani. "That we're capable of paralyzing the whole country."

He accused the Colombian forces of working with the notorious paramilitary
gunmen of the United Self- Defense Forces of Colombia, who are the main
challengers to the rebels' control of the coca fields here. Human rights
groups say the Self-Defense Forces are responsible for widespread massacres
of villagers and have ties to rogue elements in the military, a charge the
government has long denied.

The stranglehold has been especially hard on towns like Puerto Asis, La
Dorada and La Hormiga, which the rebels say are hotbeds of paramilitary
activity. Asserting that the government has not done enough, despite
airlifts to ease the food shortages, officials from across Putumayo are
planning to travel to Bogota in a convoy of cars, possibily on Sunday, as a
sign of protest.

But many people have given up on living here. At least 1,100 refugees now
live in Lago Agrio, Ecuador, all but 38 of them in the homes of relatives
or friends, according to the relief organization that has coordinated
shelter for them. An estimated 5,000 to 10,000 more have avoided the
roadblocks by traversing Ecuador and re-entering Colombia through the
western province of Narino, where many have roots.

Jose Pablo Pascal, who fled La Dorada on Saturday to join his wife and five
children in Ecuador, is now sleeping on the concrete floor of a friend's
kitchen, next to a sack of potatoes and the refrigerator.

"What terrorized us was the fear," Mr. Pascal, 42, said. "You didn't know
if when you went to sleep that something wouldn't happen. You couldn't even
sleep."

At a small house in Lago Agrio that is sheltering eight families, refugees
said that they were afraid of being attacked by guerrillas or
paramilitaries operating in their communities.

"We were in the middle of the conflict, and so we had to get out," said
Roberto Rosero. "Where we were, we had guerrillas and then just over the
bend were the paramilitaries, and they were fighting all the time."

Relief workers in Ecuador have been working to complete four other
shelters, which together will be able to house 230 people.

"We think that the problem is just starting, and it's going to get worse,"
said Gribaldo Cueva, one of the workers. "With the combat between the
guerrillas and the paramilitaries in the countryside, more people will be
coming."

Both the rebels and paramilitaries appear firmly established and prepared
to fight for months on end. In the countryside, guerrillas are such a
presence that they have taken part in the meetings farmers have lately held
with local officials to discuss coca eradication efforts. In towns like
Puerto Asis and La Hormiga, meanwhile, residents quietly point out the
paramilitary gunmen drinking at the local bar or enjoying a snow cone in
the town plaza.

The government, though, does have a presence, and engagements between
soldiers and rebels are not unusual. This year, 22 guerrillas have been
killed by the military in combat in Putumayo and 16 others have been
captured, said Colonel Diaz, reading from the latest battlefield reports.
But he acknowledges that his forces cannot be everywhere.

On Sunday, just a day after the burning of the cars, government
counterinsurgency troops could be seen patrolling on foot stretches of road
that rebels had occupied the day before. Near the community of El Tigre, a
patrol leader was asked why the military had not stopped the rebels from
burning the cars.

"We couldn't get there fast enough," he said. "It's too far, and you can't
take the road anyway because of the ambushes."