AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Monday, 17 August 1998


                Colombian government says 99 killed
                       in weekend fighting
                -----------------------------------


BOGOTA -- Thirty-six government soldiers and 63 leftist rebels died in
three days of fierce fighting south of Colombia's border with Panama,
Defense Minister Rodrigo Lloreda said Monday.

Another 29 soldiers are still missing, Lloreda told reporters after a
meeting with new Colombian President Andres Pastrana and other top
military officials.

The rebels said they captured 20 soldiers, bringing to 217 the number
captured since December by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
(FARC), Latin America's oldest and most powerful rebel group.

The largest single capture came this month, during an offensive by the
FARC and the National Liberation Army (ELN) on police and military posts
that left more than 200 dead, including civilians, troops and rebels.

The FARC has said that it fully intends to use their "prisoners of war"
--as they call the captured troops-- to swap for captured rebels, whom
they call "political prisoners."

Lloredo said that the government would pursue "humanitarian gestures" to
seek the release of the captured troops.

And the defense minister said the government was still willing to talk
peace with guerrilla leaders despite the surge in fighting.

"Whenever peace has been talked about, it's been with the understanding
that it would have to take place --unfortunately-- in the middle of a
war," Lloreda said.

The latest jungle fighting began Friday, and seemed to be an attempt by
the FARC to strengthen their hand in advance of coming peace talks with
Pastrana.

The new president, who took office on August 7, has agreed to a FARC
demand to demilitarize five townships over 47,000 square kilometers
(19,000 square miles) in southern Colombia as part of a peace process.

But he called on FARC guerrillas not to take advantage of demilitarization
to use the towns to transport drugs. Military officials have said the
region is one of Colombia's key coca production and trafficking areas.

Lloreda, a businessman and former foreign minister, said that decision
would stand despite the new outbreak of fighting. "There's been no change
in plans or in the commitment of the president as a leader of the peace
process," he said.

But in a statement Monday Pastrana said he was "surprised" by the
guerrillas' continuing offensives.

"Instead of deeds of peace, we see deeds of war," he said.

On Sunday, the FARC, the largest remaining rebel group in Latin America,
said 53 army soldiers were killed, another 30 injured and 20 taken
prisoner.

The group gave no figures on its own dead and injured.

Business and labor groups also urged both sides to continue the work for
an end to the 30-year war.

"I believe the peace process must move forward, now more than ever," said
Sabas Pretel, head of the National Business Federation and a member of the
National Peace Council.

"We must continue to look for dialogue," added fellow council member Luis
Garzon, also president of Colombia's largest labor federation.

The fighting started Friday morning near Tombeles, just south of
Colombia's border with Panama, when 600 FARC rebels attacked 180 troops
who had been searching for fellow soldiers missing here since early
August.

The FARC called its offensive a send-off for former president Ernesto
Samper, whose administration was criticized by many as  corrupt.

        Copyright 1998 Agence France-Presse