COLOMBIANS RALLY TO SEEK END OF STRIFE

BOGOTA, Colombia - Thousands of Colombians waving white flags poured
through the streets of Bogota on Sunday to call for an end to decades of
fighting between the government and rebel groups, a conflict that has
claimed nearly 1,400 civilian lives so far this year.

The march, which filled an avenue of the capital and wound through the
center of the city, came as peace talks between the two sides have stalled
and as the United States is pumping $1.3 billion in mostly military aid to
Colombia.

Business leaders and union chiefs, politicians and average citizens marched
together in an event organized by about 200 civic groups. Unofficial crowd
estimates ranged from 10,000 to 20,000.

"We're sick of the violence," said Eugenio Marulanda, president of
Colombia's chambers of commerce. "We are a kidnapped country. A murdered
country. A bloodied country."

In addition to the more than three-decade-old war between leftist rebels
and the government, Colombia has one of the highest murder and kidnapping
rates in the world.

Right-wing paramilitary squads also are killing more and more suspected
sympathizers of the rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as
FARC, and the National Liberation Army, or ELN.

In the first eight months of this year, 1,389 civilians have been massacred
by either the two main rebel armies or the paramilitary squads, according
to the government human rights office.