COLOMBIAN REBELS FEAR FOR SAFE HAVEN

BOGOTA, Colombia - Colombian fighter jets streaked over a vast rebel safe
haven this week to search for airstrips used for drug smuggling, the army
said yesterday. Rebels called the flights a threat to fragile peace talks.

Two Mirage jet fighters flew over the safe haven Tuesday at an altitude of
at least 10,000 feet after taking off from Tres Esquinas, a base where U.S.
intelligence experts have worked alongside Colombian military personnel,
said a Defense Ministry official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

More flights may be launched, the official said.

Gen. Fernando Tapias, commander of the Colombian armed forces, said the
flights were aimed at detecting clandestine airstrips used for drug
smuggling. He insisted that the military had the right to carry out such
missions.

"[It is] an exercise of sovereignty over Colombian territory," Tapias told
reporters late Tuesday.

President Andres Pastrana ceded the Switzerland-size swath of jungle and
savanna to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) three years
ago to spur talks aimed at ending the country's civil war, now in its 37th
year.

But FARC officials said earlier this month that the group would not hold
peace talks inside the safe haven, asserting that the planned military
overflights imperiled the rebels' safety.

Many Colombians fear that if peace talks collapse, the war, which kills
about 3,000 people each year, will intensify.

"I think we are at a critical juncture," said Carlos Garcia, the president
of Colombia's Congress. Garcia said he held out hope that the warring sides
still would show a desire to reach a cease-fire agreement.

Underscoring the dangers of all-out war, a smaller rebel group that has
failed to start formal cease-fire talks with the government stepped up its
campaign of bombings and other attacks.

A car packed with 44 pounds of dynamite exploded yesterday on a rural road
outside Colombia's second-largest city, Medellin, police said. The bomb,
which injured a passerby, was believed to have been planted by the National
Liberation Army (ELN).

ELN rebels also have mounted a sabotage campaign in eastern Arauca state
against a major pipeline that transports crude from an oil field operated
by Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum.

The ELN mounted five dynamite attacks Tuesday against the Cano-Limon-
Covenas pipeline, which has been shut down while repairs are made. There
have been hundreds of attacks on the pipeline this year.

In Bolivar state in northern Colombia, government troops clashed with ELN
rebels, killing one guerrilla, the army said. Bomb-making materials were
found at the site.