From: Colombian Labor Monitor <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Mon, 6 Aug 2001 14:07:24 -0500 (CDT)
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: CLM: Daily News 6 August 2001
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COLOMBIAN LABOR MONITOR
www.prairienet.org/clm
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE
Thursday, 2 August 2001
More than 100 killed in three
days of fighting in Colombia
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By Carlos Osorio
BOGOTA -- Scores of soldiers and leftist rebels have been killed in
fighting around Colombia that included aerial bombings, while thousands of
farmers blocked several highways in their strike for debt relief.
Colombia's armed forces chief General Fernando Tapias said that at least
15 soldiers and 87 leftist rebels had been killed in fighting over the
past three days.
The bloodiest clashes took place in the last 48 hours in a zone on the
border of northwestern Antioquia and Cordoba departments, where two
non-commissioned officers, 11 soldiers and at least 60 rebels of the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) died, Tapias told a press
conference here Wednesday.
Air Force Commander General Hector Velasco said that in his estimate, more
than 100 insurgents died as air force planes supporting ground troops
dropped bombs on the rebel forces.
Thousands of farmers and farm workers on Wednesday manned road blocks on
Colombia's main roads and resisted police attempts to disperse them.
Authorities and protest organizers said more than 20 people were injured.
Interior Minister Armando Estrada said the protest movement did not
disrupt the normal flow of traffic as the police were able to clear most
major roads. He reported some ongoing trouble in the center and
southeastern parts of the country.
"We can tell you that the transport situation is back to normal," Estrada
told reporters.
His statement clashed, however, with media reports late Wednesday saying
22 highways were still blocked by pickets, and that government forces had
only been able to clear four roadblocks in the northeast and central part
of the country.
Colombian coffee growers have pushed for the strike, as they seek cheaper,
more accessible credit, and ways to control their production costs, as
well as for cancellation of bank loans. They claim that some 80,000
growers risk going out of business.
Other workers who have joined into the strike include wheat, rice, banana,
and potato farmers.
Estrada said the government was willing to negotiate with the striking
farmers, but that first they would have to lift their roadblocks.
The FARC issued a statement of support for the strikers, with whom it said
it shared the same goal of "solving the serious problems facing all the
Colombian people."
Another 15 FARC fighters and two soldiers died Monday and Wednesday in
Caqueta department, 600 kilometers south of here, when army units attacked
a FARC commando that last week had taken over two towns in the area,
Tapias said.
In the firefights, he added, five police officers, one soldier and one
guerrilla were killed, and 14 police officers were wounded.
He said the FARC commando had emerged from the safe-haven of a sprawling
demilitarized zone the government gave the rebel group in late 1998 to
induce it to negotiate a peace.
The on-off peace talks between the government and the 16,500-strong FARC,
have been underway since January 1999.
Tapias also reported that nine FARC rebels were killed and 27 others were
captured in a clash with an army patrol in Tame, near the Venezuelan
border, 450 kilometers (280 miles) northeast of here.
Three other guerrillas from the Popular Liberation Army were killed in El
Playon, Santander department, 400 kilometers (250 miles) northeast of
here, the general added.
During the anti-guerrilla operations, Tapias said, the army destroyed 16
FARC encampments.
Colombia's top general said there were ongoing combats between the army
and FARC rebels late Wednesday between Tolima and Huila, in the central
part of Colombia, with no casualty reports so far.
The FARC so far has not issued any statements confirming or denying the
general's report.
For the past 37 years, Colombia has been locked in a bloody civil war
which has pitted leftist rebels against right-wing paramilitaries and the
armed forces and has seen many civilians caught in the crossfire or
targeted as suspected allies of the enemy.
More than 200,000 people, mostly civilians, have died; millions more have
fled.
Copyright 2001 Agence France Presse
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