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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020809/ap_wo_en_po/colombia_uribe_6http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020809/ap_wo_en_po/colombia_uribe_6
Colombia's new president urges countrymen to help fight war with rebels
Fri Aug 9, 1:41 PM ET
By VANESSA ARRINGTON, Associated Press Writer
VALLEDUPAR, Colombia - Facing strapped resources and growing threats from rebel groups, President Alvaro Uribe has called on his countrymen to fill in the gaps for the government as it continues a 38-year war with leftist guerrillas.
"We must overcome fear," Uribe said in the provincial capital of Valledupar, where he vowed Thursday to proceed with plans to create a force of 1 million Colombians to report on rebel activity. "We do that by everybody getting involved."
Uribe's visit to this northern town came less than 24 hours after his inauguration turned into a blood bath when a mortar attack in the capitol killed 19 people and wounded dozens Wednesday.
But he was unruffled Thursday, quietly determined to convince the country that an end to the violence would require teamwork.
"Those in danger are 40 million Colombians," he said, dressed in khaki pants and a short-sleeved yellow shirt with no tie. "If we all work together, we'll get rid of this risk for everyone."
But some say the plan to recruit citizen informants and equip them with radios to report on rebels — a cornerstone of Uribe's election campaign — may not be enough to prevent well-planned attacks like the one on Wednesday.
"We didn't notice anything — if we had, I would have fulfilled my duty and told the authorities," said Jesus Beltran, who owns a restaurant near the house from which the mortars were launched. "A politician could be living right next door to you and you might not know."
Authorities blamed the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, for the attack. The FARC, the largest leftist rebel group in Colombia with some 16,000 combatants, only rarely claims responsibility for its actions and has said nothing about Wednesday's attack.
Police had not known the rebels possessed projectiles with such range. This capability shows their tactics are becoming more sophisticated, and marks a new stage in the war — one in which neighbors with radios may be no match for the determined rebels.
Two of the mortars, fired from over a mile (1.5 kilometer) away in the house near Beltran's restaurant, damaged the presidential palace and wounded police and bodyguards, while at least two others apparently went astray and hit a slum and a middle-class house near the palace.
The house was abandoned, left with little furniture and broken windows.
"It wasn't known that this type of attack was within the capabilities of the terrorists," said Gen. Hector Dario Castro, Bogota's chief of police.
Jairo Parra, an explosives expert with the secret police, said the technology used in the attacks was similar to that used by the Irish Republican Army ( news - web sites).
A year ago, three suspected IRA members were arrested in Colombia on charges that they were training Colombian rebels in urban terrorism. They are in jail awaiting trial.
Castro said the mortars were launched via remote control. At least 14 were launched throughout the city, although some did not detonate.
Security officials failed to prevent the attack despite having 20,000 troops and police posted throughout the city, as well as helicopter gunships and a U.S. radar-equipped plane flying overhead.
Of the 19 people who died, three were children, hospital officials said. Twenty-four people remained hospitalized in serious condition.
Yet on his first full day as president of the hemisphere's most troubled nation, Uribe hardly talked about the attack. He kissed and hugged residents under the eye of army snipers on rooftops and as hundreds of other soldiers stood guard nearby.
As part of his informant plan, Uribe said he may also consider arming the citizen groups.
"Initially, (they) will not have guns because people will kill them to take the weapons, but the defense minister and the high commanders will study under what circumstances the use of arms could be authorized," Uribe said.
Uribe's plan to recruit informants worries human rights groups, who fear civilians will be targeted even more frequently by the outlawed groups, or that they might align themselves with the paramilitaries.
Various leaders sympathized with Colombia after the attacks.
U.S. President George W. Bush ( news - web sites), who is expected to maintain close ties with Uribe, said those responsible are trying to "kill the aspirations of the Colombian people for a free, prosperous, and democratic state."
The United States stands with the people of Colombia in their "struggle against terror, and we support President Uribe's efforts to bring the murderers to justice," Bush said.
U.N. Secretary-general Kofi Annan ( news - web sites) also condemned the attacks and said through a spokesman that he hopes "that in the coming period Colombia will seek political solutions to resolve the country's decades-long conflict."
Annan called Uribe on Thursday to extend the United Nations ( news - web sites)' "good offices" to the new president as he did to former President Andres Pastrana. Annan said the violence "demonstrates a complete disregard for human life," his spokesman said Thursday.
Pastrana abruptly broke off talks with the FARC Feb. 20, angered by the rebel hijacking of a civilian airliner and subsequent kidnapping of a senator.
In Valledupar, officials told Uribe of the problems in their conflict-torn region, saying travel was nearly impossible because rebels have taken over the highways.
Last year, 195 people were kidnapped in the region, according to a military report presented at the meeting. At least 55 people were robbed on local highways.
Uribe hopes the citizen watch groups, or observer patrols, will make the highways safer.
Some participants will receive a small monthly stipend — about dlrs 40. Uribe called participation in the patrols "an obligation of the people."
"We will do this with dedication, simplicity and transparency," he said.
In the meantime, most Colombians continue to live in fear as they cross their fingers that Uribe will deliver on his promises.
"We really have to be ready for anything here," said Luis Patino, 42, who lives in the same middle-class neighborhood where the mortars were launched. "But we hope that this government will solve the problems that most affect us — security and unemployment."
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