REBELS SAID TO BE USING FORCED LABOR TO BUILD ILLEGAL ROAD

BOGOTA, COLOMBIA Colombia's rebels are building a highway through
legally protected Amazonian rain forests to serve as a drug-smuggling
corridor, the Colombian Environmental Ministry charged Friday.

The ministry said the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC,
was paving over a 125-mile length of jungle that stretches through
four national parks in this country's southern cocaine-producing
lowlands. A newspaper said the rebels were using forced labor on the
project.

The FARC confirmed that a road was under construction, but denied the
accusations that it would be used to transport drugs, that forced
labor was involved or that it would hurt the environment.

The guerrillas are thought to be extending a two-lane highway through
protected jungles to link the villages of La Macarena and Pinalito,
among other projects, a ministry spokesman said.

El Tiempo newspaper reported Friday that the FARC is using forced
labor, including kidnap victims, in the project.