COLOMBIAN PEACE EFFORT GAINS POWER

'No Mas': The Movement Shows Strong Support For Ending Bloodshed.

BOGOTA, Colombia - With startling swiftness and a sense of civic commitment
rarely seen in this country, an organized mass peace movement is suddenly
becoming an important new force in efforts to negotiate an end to civil
conflict after 35 years.

Chanting "No mas" ("No more"), at least 5 million Colombians marched late
last month in more than 700 cities and towns to urge an end to the fighting
and related human rights abuses. In a country of 40 million, it was an
eye-opening display of strength, as well as a show of support for formal
peace talks just getting under way between the government and leftist
guerrillas.

"This is the first time in the history of Colombia that we are seeing a
mass mobilization on this level," said Francisco Leal Buitrago, dean of the
faculty of social sciences at the University of the Andes in Bogota. "It's
not just their rejection of the war that is important, but the fact that No
Mas represents the dawning of the process of building the civil society we
have never had."

Demand for cease-fire

The No Mas coalition's most sweeping demand is for an immediate and
permanent cease-fire, "not just some sort of Christmas truce," said
Francisco Santos, founder of the Free Country Foundation, an
anti-kidnapping group. But its call for an end to the kidnappings that have
become a social plague here and its support for a negotiated peace also
have resonated widely.

"There has been a very strong awakening of Colombian society," said Ana
Teresa Bernal, director of Redepaz, a No Mas group, "because the combatants
are showing little or no respect for the civilian population, and the peace
process seems to have bogged down."

Santos said: "People are really fed up -- tired of seeing things getting
worse and feeling impotent and forced into a corner. They want to have a
voice."

What next?

But the movement's show of strength has inevitably brought new questions.
Last week, the cover of Semana, the country's leading news magazine, raised
the main one: "Now What?" The words appeared under a picture of the green
loop, modeled on the AIDS-awareness ribbon, that has become the movement's
symbol. It often is seen on lapels or on bumper stickers along with the
slogan "I Want Peace."

"This is a long fight, and we are not a totally chartered operation, Step
1, Step 2, Step 3," Santos, who has emerged as the movement's most visible
leader, said in response to the question. "A lot of it has to do with gut
feeling, with intuition. We are going to have to be very creative in doing
different forms of protest, long-term education, building a regional base,
whatever it takes to achieve the critical mass we need to get our message
heard."

Thus far, though, none of the warring parties has shown much interest in
heeding the movement's platform. Unlike leftist Central American guerrilla
movements whose credibility depended on mobilizing popular support,
Colombia's insurgents draw their strength from money made through
kidnapping, drug trafficking and extortion. They are therefore less
susceptible to moral suasion.

The main guerrilla group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known
by its Spanish acronym FARC, has in fact belittled the movement and its
message. In their stronghold of San Vicente del Caguan, the largest town in
the sizable area that the government ceded to them a year ago, the
insurgents have erected banners that mockingly use the movement's name and
catch phrase: "No More Massacres," "No More Hunger," "No More Gringo
Soldiers."

Part of the guerrillas' animosity toward No Mas stems from their suspicion
of Santos. He is an heir to Colombia's leading publishing family, whose
paper El Tiempo has consistently criticized the guerrillas. But the rebels
also vehemently disagree with the peace movement's position that "all armed
groups," including right-wing paramilitary death squads, should be invited
to take part in national peace talks.

There is also suspicion of No Mas on the right, group leaders acknowledge.
Some within the Colombian military, said Camilo Gonzalez Posso, director of
Citizen Mandate for Peace, see the movement's insistence on a peaceful
settlement as playing into the hands of the guerrillas and tying those of
the armed forces.

Critical of parties

For their part, peace movement leaders have been critical of both of
Colombia's traditional parties and have resisted being co-opted by them.

"This is a social and civic network, not a party network," Gonzalez said.
He said that because the parties are "discredited" and because "we do not
want this to be a movement of regional or national bosses," no party
leaders spoke at the 44 regional rallies that followed the marches last
month.