November 19, 1999
Web posted at: 9:56 p.m. EST (0256 GMT)

In this story: Cease-fire failure could trigger broader war No independent count of the dead RELATED STORIES, SITES

BOGOTA, Colombia -- President Andres Pastrana lashed out Friday at the "demented attacks" this week by Colombian rebels who rejected his call for a Christmas truce.

Coordinated attacks in six rural provinces by the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, have left at least nine police and soldiers dead and several town squares in ruins.

Pastrana, who has repeatedly vouched for the rebels' sincerity in peace talks that began in January, labeled the latest violence a betrayal.

A senior FARC commander countered the president by saying his group was only defending Colombia's poor.

MESSAGE BOARD Unrest in Colombia

"The people know they won't be able to spend Christmas in peace because their children are dying of hunger," Commander Raul Reyes said.

Pastrana said his government remained committed to negotiating an end to a conflict that has killed more than 35,000 people in the past decade.

Cease-fire failure could trigger broader war

But he said the FARC, which has continued to rule out a cease-fire as part of the negotiating process, was "laying ambushes for the peace process" and threatening to plunge the country into a wider war.

"They are bent on sowing death and destruction in our towns, especially the most defenseless and poorest ones," Pastrana said. "With their demented attacks, the FARC are betraying the confidence that the government -- and also all Colombians -- have placed in (the rebels') declared will for peace."

In the latest attacks, the FARC targeted 14 towns in east, central and northeast Colombia, beginning on Tuesday night and tapering off Thursday.

No independent count of the dead

A spokesman for the government said as many as 85 guerrillas died in the attacks.

There has been no independent account of the toll, but all sides in the country's long-running war, which pits rebels against right-wing paramilitary groups as well as the army, routinely exaggerate enemy losses.

Senior military officials have accused the FARC of using a Switzerland-size area of southeast Colombia, which Pastrana cleared of government troops as a forum for the peace talks, as a springboard for the attacks.

"The demilitarized zone was created in keeping with the law as a setting for peace and not war ...," Pastrana said. "I am not going to allow it to be turned into a setting for organizing and planning out violent attacks against the Colombian people, against the armed forces and against the National Police."

The FARC rejected the charges that it was misusing the demilitarized zone and accused Pastrana of kow-towing to the army, the U.S. Embassy and powerful interests, all of which it said were opposed to the peace process."

"He (Pastrana) is the one who must decide if the dialogue is to continue and if it's profitable for him politically," Reyes told reporters.

"On the contrary, he may decide that it hurts him in terms of his commitments with the North Americans, with Colombian economic groups, with the military high command and with all the other enemies of the (peace) process."

Three weeks ago, government and rebel negotiators met amicably in a rebel-held town.

Following nationwide peace marches last month, Pastrana invited the guerrillas and rival rightist paramilitary groups to declare a Christmas and New Year's truce.

The FARC responded with a long list of preconditions and then launched this week's attacks.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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