ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss Red Cross says 90 dead in Colombia rebel onslaught http://cnn.com/WORLD/americas/9811/02/RB001998.reut.html 3 November 1998 Web posted at: 00:47 ART, Buenos Aires time (03:47 GMT) BOGOTA, Colombia (Reuters) -- In one of the bloodiest attacks on security forces this year, some 90 policemen were killed and 45 were taken prisoner when 1,000 Marxist rebels pounded a police base with home-made missiles in a remote Colombian town, Red Cross officials said on Monday. Ten civilians also were killed as Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) fighters overran Mitu, capital of Vaupes province close to Brazil, in an attack that began before dawn on Sunday. The raid came a week before the government was due to withdraw troops from a large swathe of the southeast -- an area the size of Switzerland -- to jump-start talks with FARC captains aimed at ending Colombia's long-running civil conflict. "It has not been possible to recover the corpses. ... They are just lying there," regional Red Cross chief Teddy Torbeaum told reporters in the eastern town of Villavicencio just after returning from Mitu. "There are no wounded police left in the town. The (rebels) took away between 40 and 45 policemen in good health," he added. When asked if that meant all the remaining 80 others from a total detachment of 125 at the base had been killed, he said: "More or less." Walter Cote, national head of the Red Cross rescue division, said 10 civilians died as rudimentary rebel missiles, made from gas cylinders packed with explosives, reduced the base and two blocks of the town to rubble. Many of the other 5,000 inhabitants of the main town fled into the surrounding jungle when fighting broke out, according to Torbeaum. The offensive was headed by a regional FARC commander known by the alias "Romana" who shot to notoriety when he kidnapped four U.S. bird-watchers in mountains just outside Bogota, in March -- about 400 miles (600 km) from Mitu. Romana, who has gained a reputation as a cruel and bloodthirsty warrior, threatened to kill them on suspicion of being U.S. spies before releasing them unharmed a month later. President Andres Pastrana cut short an official visit to neighbouring Venezuela, due to have lasted until Tuesday, to oversee military operations in the wake of the latest rebel onslaught. Pastrana took office three months ago pledging that his top priority would be to find a peaceful settlement to Colombia's civil conflict that has claimed more than 35,000 lives in the last decade alone. Critics, however, have accused him of granting sweeping concessions to the FARC and the smaller National Liberation Army (ELN) in an effort to coax them to the negotiating table without demanding anything in return. Two weeks ago, the Cuban-inspired ELN, which like the FARC has said it will negotiate with the government, bombed Colombia's largest oil pipeline and started a fireball of blazing crude which engulfed an entire village, killing more than 70 people. National Police chief Gen. Rosso Jose Serrano said Monday that the FARC's weekend attack on Mitu may have been intended as a final show of strength before launching talks with the government. Pastrana has ordered some 2,000 security force members to pull out of a 15,000 sq mile (40,000 sq km) area straddling parts of Caqueta and Meta provinces by Saturday to pave the way for peace negotiations -- set to be the first in six years. The president had made no official statement on the latest in a recent string of military debacles by nightfall Monday but the incident seemed unlikely to delay the start of talks with the FARC. The FARC, the oldest and largest rebel force in the hemisphere, is now holding almost 300 security force members prisoner and hopes to exchange them for jailed rebel fighters. The FARC, set up in the mid-1960s, has categorically refused to lay down its weapons before or after any eventual peace deal and is looking for at least a part-share in national power and ultimately hopes to set up a socialist system in Colombia. ately hopes to set up a socialist system in Colombia. Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
