BATTLE OVER COLOMBIAN PIPELINE SPARKS INCREASING U.S. INVOLVEMENT IN CIVIL WAR

SARAVENA, Colombia - On the edge of the war-torn city of Saravena, U.S.
military advisers are preparing for a major escalation of American
involvement in Colombia's 38-year-old civil war.

Until now, U.S. military and economic assistance to Colombia has gone
largely to fight the drug war. But in January, between 60 and 100 U.S.
Special Forces soldiers will arrive in Saravena and the surrounding area to
train thousands of Colombian troops to protect a 500-mile pipeline owned in
part by Occidental Petroleum Corp. of Los Angeles.

Their arrival will mark the United States' first close involvement in a
bloody and complex conflict waged between and among two leftist insurgent
groups, a right-wing paramilitary force and the out-numbered Colombian
military.

At Saravena's military base, four U.S. advisers are busy constructing 10
helicopter pads and fortifying the barracks that will house the U.S.
Special Forces troops.

Sandbags stacked 6 feet high ring the barracks. Sandbags are piled on the
roofs, too, so that homemade rebel rockets made of gas canisters would roll
off the barracks before exploding.

"This is one of the most difficult regions in Colombia relative to threat
but we understand what we are getting ourselves into," said Wade Chapple,
one of the four U.S. advisers. "We know who is who, and we do our best to
minimize our vulnerability."

The battle over the pipeline, which winds through northern Colombia
carrying 120,000 barrels of oil a day, has already lasted the better part
of 15 years. The pipeline is a key source of revenue for both the leftist
insurgents and the Colombian government.

Since 1986 the pipeline has been bombed 950 times by leftist rebels,
shutting it down for months on end and costing the cash-starved Colombian
government $2.5 billion in lost revenues.

The rebels, who view the pipeline as a symbol of U.S. imperialism, have
used the attacks to extort hundreds of millions of dollars from local
businesses and others.

The Colombian government, after years of inaction, is trying to wrest back
control. For that, according to recently elected President Alvaro Uribe,
Colombia needs the expertise and weaponry of the U.S. military.

The dramatic shift in U.S. policy faced opposition from some lawmakers,
human rights workers and others who feared U.S. troops could get bogged
down in an interminable war where the insurgents fight with car bombs,
homemade rockets and assassinations.

Another concern is that the U.S. advisers will be working closely with a
Colombian military that long has been accused of human rights violations.
And some critics say the plan forces U.S. taxpayers to foot the bill for
the security of a private oil company.

But the Bush administration won congressional approval in July for the
first part of a proposed $104 million pipeline-protection package by
arguing that Colombia's fight against leftist rebels is part of the United
States' global battle against terrorism. The State Department has labeled
all three of Colombia's insurgent groups "terrorist" organizations.

Protecting Colombian oil also fits into the longstanding goal of reducing
U.S. dependence on Middle East oil, especially in light of possible
military action against Iraq. Colombia is the ninth largest supplier of
imported oil to the United States.

"The United States receives three percent of its (oil) needs from
Colombia," said Anne Patterson, the U.S. ambassador to Colombia. "That's
not much. But with problems in other countries each percentage is important."

The pipeline runs through miles of guerrilla-held territory, along the
porous Venezuelan border and up steep, inaccessible mountains before
emptying at the Caribbean coast. Most guerrilla attacks occur in a 50-mile
stretch that passes near Saravena.

U.S. military planners are hoping first to improve Colombia's intelligence
capabilities. Then, with U.S.-supplied helicopters, better-trained
counterinsurgency units can quickly engage the rebels, who up to now have
operated with relative impunity.

"That's a long-term project," said Chapple, a U.S. Army special operations
officer. "The terrain is difficult and there are large distances that we
cover. You can't put soldiers (on the pipeline) every five feet. Lack of
mobility is a concern."

In Saravena, a ramshackle town located on a broad, lush plain, officials
and residents greet the plan for U.S. forces with a mixture of anguish and
support.

Some say they are tired of the conflict and are ready to back Uribe's
get-tough policy. Others fear that the arrival of U.S military trainers,
their helicopters and other equipment will only intensify a conflict that
kills 3,000 Colombians a year and has devastated the town.

"I am one of those people who think that more war will not solve anything,"
said Saravena Mayor Jose Trinidad Sierra.

Already this year attacks by leftist rebels in Saravena have killed a
half-dozen people and injured more than 50 others. Launching homemade
rockets, the rebels have turned the downtown area into rubble, destroying
the city hall, the city council building, the prosecutor's office and many
other structures.

Craters from rocket attacks pock-mark the town's main plaza.

"My family prays for me," said Omar Neiza, a 22-year-old Colombian police
officer in Saravena. "What we hope for is to get shot in the leg or get
sick so that we can get out of here."

The pipeline, which transports oil from the giant 1.2 billion barrel Cano
Limon field, has been a magnet for Colombian insurgents since it was opened
under a joint operating agreement between Occidental and Colombia's
state-owned oil company, Ecopetrol.

For years, Saravena and the surrounding region was dominated by the
National Liberation Army, or ELN, Colombia's second-largest leftist rebel
army. The ELN bombed the pipeline 40 or 50 times a year, enough to extort
protection money, known as vacunas, or vaccinations, out of oil contractors
and other businesses.

The rebels also took over local governments and siphoned off millions of
dollars in oil royalties that by law must be paid by Occidental to local
municipal and state entities.

"The ELN maximized its racketeering operation," explained one Occidental
official in Colombia. "What they did is go after the big resources and
that's the royalities."

The ELN's dominance ended in 1997, when Colombia's largest leftist
insurgency, the 18,000 member Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or
FARC, began battling for control of the pipeline.

The struggle peaked last year when the FARC bombed the pipeline 170 times
and shut it down for more than 200 days - thus denying the ELN the revenue
to fund its army.

The bombings also hurt the bottom line of Occidental, which gets about 6.5
percent of its total world production from the Cano Limon field. The
frequent shutdowns last year cost the Colombia government an estimated $500
million in lost revenue, or roughly 2 percent of its budget.

"Occidental did lose money as a result of the pipeline being down but those
losses were dwarfed by the losses of the Colombian government," said Larry
Meriage, an Occidental spokesman in Los Angeles.

While Occidental and Ecopetrol have provided helicopters, food and other
logistical support to the Colombian military, top company executives met
last year with then-Colombian President Andres Pastrana and Patterson, the
U.S. ambassador, to persuade them to bolster pipeline protection.

Meriage said it was U.S. Embassy officials who took the lead in the
pipeline protection effort in Washington, though he acknowledged that the
decision to send U.S. military advisers to the region will help
Occidental's oil operation in Colombia.

"Does the company benefit from more security in the area? Absolutely,"
Meriage said.

Earlier this year the Colombian military shifted large numbers of troops to
protect the pipeline - something that has helped reduce the number of rebel
attacks to 32 this year.

The success has provided a badly needed boost to the security forces here
while also sending a strong signal to U.S. officials that Colombia - while
desperately needing U.S. military assistance - is prepared to do the actual
fighting against the guerrillas.

"We don't need (U.S.) troops to fight. It's our fight," said Colombian Vice
President Fernando Santos in an interview. "We know that it is a fight that
we have to win."

But some human rights workers say the local Colombian army unit responsible
for pipeline protection, the 18th Brigade, has aided the advance of
right-wing paramilitary forces, who are battling the two leftist
insurgencies for control of the region.

Known as the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, or AUC, the
paramilitary squads are suspected of assassinating two local congressmen
and are believed responsible for 70 percent of 420 political killings this
year in nearby Arauca city, the department capital.

In two public letters circulated in Arauca city, the department capital,
the AUC marked more than 100 prominent residents for death and vowed to
cleanse the region of guerrillas and their supporters.

"We will begin with those persons who are most compromised and whom do not
have any other alternative but death," one letter said.

Gen. Carlos Lemus, commander of the 18th Brigade, which will be the focus
of U.S. military efforts, denied links to the AUC and said his forces are
fighting the two leftist insurgencies and the paramilitaries "with the same
vigor."

"For our troops there is no difference between the terrorist FARC, the
terrorist ELN, or the terrorist paramilitaries," he said.

Lemus said he is confident the U.S. military assistance will make a
difference in the battle to protect the pipeline. But a recent FARC car
bombing near Saravena illustrated the continuing challenge of fighting an
enemy that strikes and flees, rarely offering a solid military target.

The blast, aimed at a caravan of trucks owned by the state oil company,
killed one oil worker and injured another. The Colombian military quickly
scrambled a single helicopter to strafe the guerrilla bombers.

But they had no helicopters or vehicles to ferry troops to the battlefield.
Instead, dozens of Colombian soldiers loaded down with rifles, grenade
launchers and other equipment trudged down an empty highway six miles on foot.

After a brief battle, the two dozen guerrillas escaped into the surrounding
foothills, leaving only residents who were picking through body parts,
empty shell casings, and the charred remains of the vehicle.

"We can't respond quickly," said the commander of the local battalion. "The
guerrillas take off their uniforms, grab a hoe, and you don't know who is who.

"The U.S. has a lot of experience in war. They can help us," he said.