COLOMBIA PULLS TROOPS IN PEACE BID WITH REBELS

BOGOTA, Colombia - Government troops are withdrawing from a huge swath of
southern Colombia ahead of peace talks with the hemisphere's oldest and
largest rebel band.

A 16,800-square-mile area will be free of government troops for 90 days
beginning Nov. 7, President Andres Pastrana announced last night. The area
is a stronghold of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC,
which has been fighting successive governments for 34 years.

Pastrana, who took office Aug. 7, spoke on the eighth day of a nationwide
strike by tens of thousands of public-sector employees. The announcement
appeared designed to divert attention from the walkout, which has hobbled
essential services.

Earlier yesterday, thousands of strikers marched on the capital, clogging
arteries and jamming Bogota's main square in defiance of Pastrana, who said
giving in to union demands would imperil the economy.

"The government is more concerned with the peace process and guerrillas
than with listening to a part of the public that isn't armed," striking
teacher Luz Garcia said.

Unions representing more than 650,000 workers are protesting a government
austerity package that cuts public-sector spending and reduces wage
increases next year to an average of 14 percent. Union leaders insist on
salary increases at least in line with Colombia's 18 percent inflation, and
an end to plans to privatize state industries.

At a news conference last night at the presidential palace, Pastrana said
he had issued a decree recognizing the FARC's political status.

Government officials said the troop pullout, which began yesterday, would
be gradual and verified by a commission including the International Red
Cross.

"The vast majority of Colombians want peace and are prepared to pay the
price for it, but only if it means more democracy, more social justice and
more equal opportunity," Pastrana said.

A month before he took office, Pastrana met with the FARC's supreme
commander, Manuel Marulanda, in the southern jungles and agreed to
demilitarize the area as a condition for beginning a peace dialogue.

The FARC, at its strongest ever and holding 245 police officers and
soldiers captured over the past year, has not yet said what it would ask
for in return for laying down its arms. Its 15,000 combatants control vast
rural areas of Colombia, funding their armed struggle through kidnapping
and "war taxes" on the drug trade.

The pullout has raised concerns about guerrilla reprisals against civilians
and an upsurge in drug trafficking in the region. The area is a prime
cultivation, processing and transit center for coca, the raw material of
cocaine.

The mayor of the most populous municipality in the southern zone told
Radionet radio that residents were concerned about living under rebel rule.

"The people have a lot of expectations and a lot of worries," said Omar
Garcia, the mayor of San Vicente del Caguan. "The doubts have still not
been cleared up."