COLOMBIA READY TO DEPLOY FIRST PEASANT-TROOPS

Colombia will start deploying troops next month as part of a controversial
program to train peasants to defend their hometowns against guerrilla
attacks, a top military official said on Tuesday.

The program is part of an ambitious plan by President Alvaro Uribe to post
15,000 armed soldier-peasants in remote villages, in a move that human
rights groups worry could lead to human rights excesses.

"On Feb. 5 they (the peasants) will finish their training and then be
deployed," said the Army Commander, Carlos Ospina, who is in Washington on
a Pentagon-sponsored program for foreign military chiefs.

He said 5,000 peasant-soldiers had been trained and armed, and would now be
returned to their villages, in small 36-men platoons.

Colombia is in the midst of a four-decade long armed conflict that pits
regular troops against two left-wing guerrilla groups and a right-wing
paramilitary unit. Vast tracts of the country are in guerrilla hands, which
the United States says use drug money to fund themselves.

Uribe, who was sworn in August at the same time Ospina took command, has
made a tougher stance against illegal groups a cornerstone of his presidency.

"Our purpose is to occupy villages that have no security, with campesinos,
with our soldiers and with police officers so we will regain control over
some areas," Ospina told reporters.

But on Jan. 14, Human Rights Watch issued a strongly worded report on
Colombia. The rights group said it was "especially preoccupied" with the
peasant-soldier program which could lead to "a legalization of the
paramilitary partners of the army."

To avoid excesses, Ospina said each armed peasant platoon, which he called
soldiers, would be accompanied by a regular army platoon and would
coordinate with local police units.

The units will be deployed in 144 villages, with an additional 400 villages
getting fresh recruits over the next few months.

Ospina said he had visited villages that would benefit from the program and
locals were happy to get the troops, which they considered "their army,
their soldiers."