Colombia Rebels Fight Drug Effort By Jared Kotler Associated Press Writer Thursday, June 29, 2000; 6:27 p.m. EDT LOS POZOS, Colombia –– Rebels threatened Thursday to introduce surface-to-air missiles into Colombia's civil war and vowed to battle a planned U.S.-backed offensive against the country's drug crops – a source of wealth for the insurgents. Critics of Washington's $1.3 billion aid package, expected to be passed by Congress by week's end, have said it will intensify the war and pull the United States into a quagmire. Analysts expect the rebels to fiercely resist attempts by U.S.-trained Colombian troops, backed by U.S.-supplied helicopters, to seize coca-growing areas. Coca is the raw material for cocaine. Ivan Rios, a commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, said his group would arm coca farmers if needed to resist "U.S. aggression." Rios said rebels may also purchase surface-to-air missiles to shoot down combat helicopters, which form the most expensive component of the U.S. aid package. The rebels are not known currently to possess surface-to-air missiles. But with millions of dollars in proceeds from their drug-protection racket and with links to arms dealers, surface-to-air missiles would be within the rebels' reach. Washington's assistance is an attempt to stem the flow of cocaine and heroin from Colombia and to shore up the country's long-standing democracy. Both drugs are produced in Colombia in huge quantities. But Rios, speaking in an interview in Los Pozos, a village in Colombia's coca-growing south, said the aid is tantamount to "throwing fuel on the fire" of the 36-year civil conflict. "The peasants will defend themselves and we will stand by them," said the bearded rebel, a pistol and a large knife bulging from his olive-green fatigues. "It's going to be war out there." Meanwhile, delegates from 21 countries and the United Nations arrived here in Caqueta State for a two-day conference on alternative policies for curbing Colombia's world-leading cocaine production. Envoys from Europe, Canada and Japan flew into a FARC-controlled airport whose brick control tower bears a huge painting of a grinning Manuel "Sureshot" Marulanda, the rebel group's 70-year-old founder and leader. Buses escorted by rifle-toting rebels on motorcycles whisked the envoys to lodgings at a military base evacuated 19 months ago when President Andres Pastrana ceded five townships to the rebels as a goodwill gesture for peace. Peace talks have stalled, however. About 200 coca farmers who were bused in for the event chanted slogans such as: "No to fumigation, yes to education." Government peace negotiator Camilo Gomez told diplomats and others gathered for the meeting, and watched over by rebels including gun-toting women in combat fatigues, that coca has done nothing but bring fleeting prosperity. He said the government wanted coca growers to gain legitimate livelihoods. "What we want is penal action against drug traffickers and social action for the farmers," Gomez said. Under the U.S. aid plan, the Colombian military will receive advanced helicopters and Green Beret training for new army battalions tasked with "securing" coca plantations where the rebels are entrenched. Drug crops guarded and taxed by the FARC and rival paramilitary militias would undergo aerial fumigation. The rebels are expected to fight back. "The FARC has been in Caqueta and Putumayo for decades, so why would they give it up without a fight?" said Adam Isacson, a Colombia specialist with the Center for International Policy in Washington. Government plans are also being drawn up to resettle as many as 50,000 people who could be displaced by the so-called "Push into Southern Colombia." Hundreds of poor peasants traveled for days to the alternative development conference to speak out against aerial fumigation. "Fumigation kills the coca, but it also kills animals, makes children sick, and destroys nature," said Heymer Cobo, a coca farmer from neighboring Putumayo State where about two-fifths of Colombia's coca is grown. The United States, which suspended contacts with the FARC after a rebel unit killed three Americans civilians last year, boycotted the conference. © Copyright 2000 The Associated Press <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! 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