COLOMBIA ACTIVATES US-BACKED ANTI-NARCOTICS UNIT

BOGOTA, Colombia -- In an attempt to undercut the guerrillas who profit from
the drug trade, Colombia yesterday activated a new anti-narcotics battalion,
trained and equipped by the United States.

Analysts say the new army unit, to be inaugurated by President Andres
Pastrana, signals that the military is taking a more aggressive stance
toward the guerrillas -- and could propel the nearly 40-year-old conflict
into a more violent phase.

Heavily armed leftist rebels control vast tracts of the jungle where drug
crops are cultivated and earn tens of millions of dollars annually in
protection money from narcotics producers in this country that exports the
bulk of the world's cocaine.

Washington's sponsorship of this 950-man battalion demonstrates its growing
commitment to help Colombia's besieged government take the offensive against
the drug-financed guerrillas.

"With the actions of this new contingent we will save the lives of human
beings around the world," Pastrana declared in the inauguration ceremony at
the Tolemaida military base just south of Bogota.

The United States is giving Colombia $289 million in anti-drug aid this
year -- making Colombia the No. 3 recipient of U.S. foreign military aid --
and is working to put together an additional emergency package based on
Bogota's request for $500 million more.

The United States is equipping the battalion with everything from 18 UH-1N
helicopters to night-vision goggles. And it sent about 50 Special Forces
instructors in April to train the new unit.

U.S. Ambassador Curtis Kamman looked on during yesterday's ceremony while
six army helicopters hovered above the parade ground as 15 Colombian
soldiers climbed up ropes into the choppers and simulated an assault on a
drug lab.

Until this year, U.S. anti-narcotics aid to Colombia went exclusively to the
police, an effective investment until the country's big drug cartels were
dismantled and guerrillas and right-wing paramilitary groups increased their
role in the industry.

Since 1996, guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or
FARC, have consolidated their control across some 40 percent of the
countryside, making it perilous for helicopter-borne police alone to destroy
drug crops and laboratories.

During the past two years, coca cultivation has increased by 170 percent,
according to Col. Leonardo Gallego, the anti-narcotics police commander.

The new battalion will be based in the heart of that zone at Tres Esquinas,
a base where the military is creating a Joint Intelligence Command with U.S.
guidance. It is expected to be running by October.

While there is scant evidence the rebel groups have evolved into drug
trafficking organizations, there is no doubt the drug trade has made them
stronger, officials say.

In accordance with U.S. law on military aid to Colombia, only soldiers with
clean human-rights records were permitted into the battalion, officials
said. Colombia's military has a history of supporting paramilitary death
squads, although Pastrana this year fired three generals accused of such
links.

Elsewhere yesterday, Colombian military officials said they believed
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas were behind the
kidnapping of 12 foreigners across the border in Ecuador over the weekend.

One American and seven Canadian oil workers, employees of Alberta-based
United Pipeline Systems, were abducted along with a Canadian and three
Spanish tourists in Ecuador's northwestern Sucumbios region Saturday by an
armed gang in combat fatigues.

The jungle region is just across a river from Colombia's southern Putumayo
province, a traditional stronghold of the FARC, Latin America's largest
surviving 1960s rebel army that partly funds its uprising with kidnap
ransoms.