AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Tuesday, 11 August 1998


                     Colombian president confirms
                demilitarization to speed peace talks
                -------------------------------------


BOGOTA -- President Andres Pastrana said Tuesday he would move to
demilitarize a vast area of Colombia's jungle to speed up peace talks with
this violence-wracked nation's most powerful rebel group.

"In 90 days or less... we will demilitarize five municipalities that will
become a zone of detente," Pastrana said as he swore in his peace adviser
Victor Ricardo.

Pastrana announced at his own swearing-in Friday that seeking a peace
accord with the powerful Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) 
and
the smaller National Liberation Army (ELN) would be his government's top
priority.

The FARC and the ELN have made demilitarization of the municipalities in
southwestern Meta and Caqueta province a condition of sitting down to
peace talks.

The area, according to the Colombian military, is a prime corridor for
drug traffickers and Pastrana asked the FARC to show the country that it
will "not be a corridor for impunity (or) for the expansion of drug
trafficking."

The president committed his government to sever any links between the
military and right-wing paramilitary groups and pressed the rebels to
break their ties to drug barons.

The 12,000-strong FARC has said that once it confirms that the military
has withdrawn from the jungle area, it would be ready to begin peace
negotiations.

Pastrana and top FARC leaders had agreed on the conditions for the
withdrawal in a historic meeting July 9 in the Colombian jungle.

In June, members of the ELN met in Germany with Colombian civic
organizations to lay the groundwork for peace talks.

        Copyright 1998 Agence France-Presse