Protests by Colombia's civil war homeless paralyze
            oil town

                  BOGOTA, Colombia (Reuters) -- Thousands of people made homeless by
                  Colombia's civil war protested in its main oil town on Thursday, prompting
                  oil workers to down tools in solidarity and virtually shut it down.

                  There were no reports of serious violence from Thursday's mass street
                  protests involving up to 10,000 peasants who have poured into the grimy,
                  riverfront oil town of Barrancabermeja in recent weeks.

                  But Cuban-inspired National Liberation Army (ELN) rebels ambushed a
                  column of armored personnel carriers on the outskirts of the city Wednesday
                  night.

                  The vehicles, several of which were damaged by explosives, were
                  dispatched from Bogota for crowd control in Barrancabermeja and were
                  ferrying about 50 soldiers into the city at the time of the attack, military
                  spokesmen said.

                  Protesters demand removal of army officers

                  ELN commandos have a strong presence in Barrancabermeja, which is on
                  the banks of the Magdalena River in northeast Santander province and has
                  been the site of escalating public order problems in recent months.

                  The peasants, who have taken refuge in growing numbers in
                  Barrancabermeja since late July, say they fled their homes to escape
                  escalating and increasingly brutal violence in the countryside.

                  Their leaders demanded that the government immediately remove from
                  active duty a list of army officers they suspect of sponsoring right-wing
                  paramilitary groups and death squad activity around their rural homes.

                  But the government of President Andres Pastrana, who took office last
                  month, has signaled it has no intention of intervening in the matter, or of
                  interfering in the army's chain of command.

                  Oil workers back peasants

                  Colombia's powerful and fiercely nationalistic oil workers' union, USO,
                  launched a citywide strike, backed by other labor groups and grass-roots
                  political movements, at dawn Thursday to press for housing for people who
                  have been displaced and for government help.

                  But while the 24-hour strike halted most business and transportation in the
                  town, government officials said there was only a slight drop in output from
                  the Barrancabermeja refinery, the country's leading source of gasoline.

                  Oil installations in the city were hit by a string of sabotage attacks
                  Wednesday, but spokesmen for the state oil company Ecopetrol said only
                  minor damage was caused.

                  A right-wing death squad massacred dozens of people in an attack in a
                  Barrancabermeja slum in May. But municipal officials said there was no
                  indication of another attack soon.

                  War leaves 1.3 million homeless

                  Pastrana campaigned on a pledge to seek a negotiated settlement of
                  Colombia's long-running guerrilla war, which has killed more than 30,000
                  people, mostly civilians, and made 1.3 million Colombians homeless over the
                  last decade.

                  But Amnesty International openly challenged Pastrana earlier this week to
                  act "without further vacillation" to end what it called Colombia's "escalating
                  human rights crisis."

                  Among other measures, which it described as the first step toward any
                  lasting peace process, the London-based group urged Pastrana to dismantle
                  paramilitary groups, which it described as "allies" of the military, and crack
                  down on human rights abuses by the armed forces.

                  Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited.