Wed, Jul 30, 2003 page7

• Colombian rebels get second chance at civilian life

  RESTORATION The government has sweetened its crackdown on the insurgents and paramilitaries with a program that offers money and a chance to start again

  • THE GUARDIAN
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  In the dead of night, as Luis was on guard duty for his leftwing rebel unit, he saw his chance to escape. His heart pounding with fear, he dropped his rifle and started running through the thick jungle of the Colombian Pacific coast, leaving behind the only life he had known for the past 11 years.

  Luis, 23, trudged through the jungle for eight days until he came to a town, where he turned himself in at the prosecutor's office last month. Prison, he thought, would be better than the guerrilla's life he had not wanted in the first place.

  But Luis, who was forcibly recruited by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) when he was 12, got an even better deal.

  As part of the government's effort to lure combatants from Colombia's guerrilla armies and right wing paramilitary groups, he was cleared of criminal charges and put in a program to integrate former fighters into civilian life.

  "I wanted to change my life," he said, giving the false name Luis to protect his identity, like most of the former rebels who told their stories in interviews arranged by the defense ministry.

  Colombia has been embroiled for decades in a civil war between Marxist rebels on the one hand and rightwing paramilitary groups and government forces on the other.

  After peace talks failed last year President Alvaro Uribe was elected on a promise to crack down hard on the insurgents. But as its troops advance on rebel- and paramilitary-held territories, the government is taking tired, disgruntled fighters under its wing.

  They are given room and board in one of several shelters in Bogota, vocational training, and money to start small businesses or titles to farmland.

  In exchange they turn in their weapons and provide information on the group they belonged to and any crimes they may have witnessed.

  Evidence from many former rebels and paramilitary fighters has helped clear up 70 unsolved crimes.

  "The ex-combatants are useful for the army and prosecutors - they give testimony, they describe the sociological context of the armed groups," said the deputy defense minister Andres Penate, who heads the demobilization program.

  The program for rebel deserters has been in place since 1999, but Uribe's government has made encouraging desertion a priority and has put aside about US$9.3 million for the program this year.

  The campaign has turned a trickle into a steady flow. In the first half of the year 837 rebels and paramilitary fighters deserted and entered the program, nearly as many as in the whole of the previous three years.

  The government is expecting more.

  On the radio a former guerrilla describes the civil war as "sterile", and the government promises protection and rehabilitation to anyone who has not committed a heinous crime.

  Leaflets dropped over territories controlled by the armed factions offer about US$350 for each rifle and more for heavy weapons and explosives. With an estimated 35,000 rebel and paramilitary soldiers spread across the country, the current desertion rate is unlikely to make a serious dent in the armed groups. But the government is counting on the campaign having a demoralizing effect.

  Rebel commanders have taken notice. A FARC front in eastern Colombia has started circulating flyers which call on government soldiers to desert, offering about US$3,576 for each rifle and adding, "We guarantee you your life."

  Pizarro, 19, had had enough of FARC's unfilled promises.

  Recruited when he was eight, he said, he was promised a good wage and the chance to visit his family occasionally. He received neither.

  But Pizarro, who still goes by his rebel alias, did receive a revolutionary education. And he became commander of a 60-strong company. But he became disillusioned.

  "I was convinced that the idea was to take power in the name of the people. But I realized that's not what they're doing," he said. "What they are doing is terrorism."

  So when he heard of the rehabilitation program on the government-sponsored radio ads, he convinced 12 of his comrades, including two brothers, to join him when he fled two months ago.

  Deserters are interviewed and given a polygraph test to weed out any who may try to pass as combatants to take advantage of the room, board and cash offered. So far, 68 people have been rejected.

  Eliminating impostors is relatively simple, but detecting rebel and paramilitary infiltrators is much more difficult, and much more crucial.

  In the rebel world desertion is punishable by death, and the former combatants' first priority is their own security.

  Penate said that in each shelter government soldiers posing as members of the program reported any suspicious activity. So far three people had admitted being sent into the program to kill deserters.

  While trying to keeping the former fighters safe, the government also must help them start a new life.

  When asked what he wants to do, Luis says his biggest dream is to reunite with his family. As for an occupation, he said, "All I want to be is a civilian."
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