COLOMBIANS ARE DEEPLY SKEPTICAL ABOUT PEACE CHANCES, POLLS SHOW

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- A day after Colombia's top rebel leader
shunned the start of peace talks with the government, public opinion
polls showed deep skepticism about prospects for peace.

President Andres Pastrana was embarrassed before a national television
audience and international dignitaries Thursday when Manuel Marulanda,
the 68-year-old chief of the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia failed to arrive at the inaugural ceremony of negotiations to
end a 34-year conflict.

According to a poll published Friday in the El Espectador newspaper,
half of Colombians questioned believe the peace talks will drag on
indefinitely. Another 27 percent believe the talks are leading
nowhere, and only 23 percent believe they will result in peace.

Forty percent of those polled said the peace talks would last at least
10 years, and 59 percent said they believe the rebels, also known as
FARC, have no genuine interest in peace.

The survey of 600 adults in five major cities, conducted Wednesday by
the National Consulting Center, had a margin of error of plus or minus
4 percentage points.

Despite Marulanda's absence at Thursday's ceremonies, Pastrana said
Friday that he remained "very optimistic" about the peace process.

"We achieved the most important thing, which was to establish the
negotiating table. And the FARC was there," he told reporters in Cartagena.

Meanwhile, FARC fears of an assassination plot against Marulanda were
called into doubt Friday by observers, many of whom believed the
reclusive rebel chief -- a self-educated peasant who has spent most of
his life in hiding -- was simply stricken with stage fright.

Marulanda "doesn't feel comfortable in such a formal and ceremonious
atmosphere," former Defense Minister Gen. Alvaro Valencia Tovar told
the El Tiempo newspaper.

Rebel spokesmen say Marulanda feared a right-wing assassination
attempt despite the more than 2,000 FARC guerrillas patrolling the
streets and access routes to San Vicente del Caguan, the southern
ranch town where the ceremony took place.

Former Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega -- who spent Thursday night
at Marulanda's jungle hideout -- backed the rebel claims, telling
reporters the rebels had provided him with "clear evidence" that a
right-wing plot was afoot.

In ongoing violence, suspected right-wing gunmen launched several
attacks at the start of the peace talks, killing at least 22 people,
police said Friday.

Gunmen swarmed the town of Curumani, 300 miles north of Bogota, on
Thursday, killing 11 people and burning down farm houses, state police
said. Attacks also occurred in five towns in central Antioquia State,
killing at least 11 more people.

The right-wing paramilitary groups, formed by landowners and drug
traffickers to combat guerrilla kidnappings and extortion, often
target civilians they suspect of collaborating with the rebels.

Government delegates planned to meet FARC negotiators at an isolated
location today to discuss an agenda and timetable for peace talks.