RISING VIOLENCE PRECEDES 'PLAN COLOMBIA'

Critics Say The Huge, U.S.-Backed Counterdrug Effort Will Just Add Fuel To
The Fire In Colombia's Fighting

Fierce fighting between left-wing guerrillas and right-wing paramilitaries
has forced thousands of residents to flee southern Colombia in recent weeks.

Some 400 people now are camped across the border in Ecuador, according to
United Nations officials. Hundreds more cross the border each day, using
routes through northern Ecuador to reach safer parts of Colombia.

Officials in Ecuador fear the trickle across the border could turn into a
flood as Colombia's civil war intensities.

The exodus comes only weeks before the United States and Colombia begin
implementation of a controversial $7.5-billion plan to stamp out the drug
trade in Colombia.

The sudden surge in violence has some analysts questioning the counterdrug
offensive, dubbed "Plan Colombia." Rather than cure the problem, it may
only make it worse, causing civilians to pay a heavy price.

But Colombian and U.S. officials are sticking to their guns. Plan Colombia
isn't to blame for the current fighting, the Pentagon's top official for
Colombia policy told the St. Petersburg Times last week.

"Far from being a failure of Plan Colombia, this is exactly why you need
it," said Brian E. Sheridan, assistant secretary of defense for special
operations and low-intensity conflict. He blamed the fighting on a battle
for control over Colombia's most important region of coca cultivation.

"They are fighting over the heavy coca, the heaviest concentration of coca
production in Colombia right now. They're fighting over money right now,
that's all that's going on," he said.

Whoever is right, the situation is daily growing more dramatic.

Those fleeing are residents of the coca-growing department of Putumayo who,
for more than a month, have endured an "armed strike" called by the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, the country's largest
insurgent group.

Meanwhile, many of the 320,000 residents of Putumayo are trapped.
Roadblocks have prevented the supply of food and other goods to the
isolated department. In the town of Puerto Asis, shops have run out of many
goods, including toilet paper and bottled water.

The FARC has burned cars and buses that defied the strike order. Power
lines have been cut and gasoline supplies reduced to a trickle.

The FARC is using the strike to protest the buildup of illegal
Paramilitary groups in Putumayo, alleging that they enjoy close ties to the
Colombian army. They are Also demanding that the Colombian government call
off its military offensive, which is backed by U.S. training and money.

In January, U.S.-trained Colombian counterdrug battalions will begin to
make their push into Putumayo. They will be supported by as many as 33 UH-1
Huey helicopters, also supplied out of a $1.3-billion U.S. aid package
approved by Congress this summer.

Analysts who monitor events in Colombia closely are concerned that the
military push may only further fuel violence in the region. The impending
arrival of U.S.- trained troops could have emboldened the paramilitary
leaders to take the law into their own hands.

"My fear is that the paramilitaries are softening the area for the
(military) push into southern Colombia," said Adam Isacson of the Center
for International Policy in Washington. "The paramilitaries may see
themselves as the vanguard for this push."

The paramilitaries arrived in Putumayo 18 months ago from northwest
Colombia. After a campaign of assassinations and threats, they now control
several towns, imposing terror on the residents. Anyone suspected of aiding
the guerrillas, with food or information, is quickly silenced.

What about the allegations of military collaboration? The Colombian
government admits that this may have been the case in the past but insists
it is acting to sever those ties. Several generals who allegedly supported
paramilitary operations have been fired.

But in Putumayo that does not appear to be the case. Paramilitary gunmen
openly walk the streets in Puerto Asis. They proudly identify themselves as
former government soldiers. Some advertise their official allegiance,
wearing Colombian army shirts - with the insignia of anti-guerrilla battalions.

Although the army, has sent in reinforcements to Puerto Asis, it has not
tried to regain control of rural roads. Colombian and U.S. officials say
Plan Colombia will change all that.

"Putumayo is a poster child for why you need Plan Colombia," Sheridan said.
"The FARC and the paramilitaries are running roughshod all over the
Putumayo right now, killing each other, blockading roads, holding villages
hostage ... and the military,and police are nowhere to be found."

But Colombian military strategists, and by association, their U.S.
paymasters, run the risk of, alienating local citizens. The average peasant
farmer has little sympathy for the FARC. But they are equally scornful of
the Colombian military's passivity toward the paramilitaries.

The refugee crossings also have alarmed officials in Ecuador. Church and
civic leaders in Lago Agrio, the nearest town to the border, have issued an
"open letter" calling upon the international community "to unite with us
against Plan Colombia."

At talks in Washington next week, Ecuador says it plans to ask the United
States for additional logistical support to bolster its border security.

Meanwhile, residents in Putumayo are deeply pessimistic.

Despite an airlift of 300 tons of food, they complain the government has
not done enough. In Puerto Asis, the mayor says the town is on the point of
major social unrest. He is asking the government to negotiate directly with
the rebels.

"The government has abandoned Putumayo," said Mayor Manuel Alzate. He
doubts Plan Colombia will make much difference. "The government would have
to station its troops every 50 yards along the highways, and they lack the
manpower to do that. And even if they did, the rebels could creep up and
kill them."

- - Material from Times wires was used in this story.