LA SOMBRA, Colombia, Nov 6 (Reuters) - Rebel commanders on Friday
                  began to take control of much of southeast Colombia, temporarily ceded to
                  them by the government in an effort to clear the way for the first peace talks
                  in six years.

                  President Andres Pastrana, seeking to end a 30-year-old civil conflict,
                  ordered 2,000 government troops to pull out of five municipalities that
                  straddle Caqueta and Meta provinces for at least three months.

                  It remained uncertain when talks would begin, however. Rebels said
                  negotiations may still be at least several weeks off. They suggested that they
                  might accept a ceasefire during talks, provided the government proposed it
                  and ordered right-wing 'death squads' to stand down.

                  "The government must give the order to ceasefire to the paramilitaries and
                  the military," Commander Fabian Ramirez, one of three FARC leaders
                  heading the upcoming negotiations, said in an interview with Reuters. "It
                  cannot allow paramilitaries to act on their own behalf."

                  Human rights groups have accused the military of backing paramilitary
                  gangs.

                  The tract of land temporarily turned over to rebels is roughly the size of
                  Switzerland, about 15,000 square miles, (40,000 sq km).

                  In coming days about 3,000 FARC fighters, of an estimated 15,000-strong
                  force, are to sweep the region, home to nearly 100,000 people, to verify
                  that all government troops have left.

                  That job could take up to three weeks, rebels said. After that, the FARC is
                  set to hold a series of initial meetings with the government to discuss how to
                  proceed and who will take part in official talks. The negotiating table will be
                  set up in the main town centre of San Vicente, population 42,000, rebels
                  said.

                  The drive for peace comes against the backdrop of an upsurge in the long
                  war, which in the past decade alone has claimed more than 35,000 lives.

                  Just last weekend, Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC)
                  fighters attacked a police base in eastern jungles, killing scores of people,
                  including civilians.

                  Pastrana accused the rebels of "sowing sorrow and death" and bolstering the
                  arguments of unspecified groups opposed to the peace process.

                  Top rebel leaders shook off those accusations in an interview with Reuters,
                  saying they were seeking to build -- not tear down -- the country.

                  "We want better conditions for the 20 million Colombians who live on the
                  poverty line and are becoming poorer each day," said Commander Raul
                  Reyes, a member of the FARC's seven-man General Secretariat.

                  "We want peace with social justice and have got political, social and cultural
                  proposals," he said, speaking at a secret location near the village of La
                  Sombra, a 2-1/2-hour drive from the main town of San Vicente del Caguan,
                  the largest municipality to be demilitarized.

                  Scores of guerrillas fanned out in defensive positions around a hastily erected
                  encampment while Reyes spoke.

                  The last government soldier was due to be airlifted out of San Vicente on
                  Saturday, and government peace commissioner Victor Ricardo was due to
                  fly in to open discussions with rebel leaders.

                  Joaquin Gomez, head of the FARC's Southern Bloc division and one of
                  three rebel negotiators, said despite suggestions to the contrary, he does not
                  plan to meet this weekend with Ricardo.

                  In fact, Gomez said, preliminary talks are unlikely to begin for days or even
                  weeks. He said these discussions would then be followed by point-by-point
                  negotiations.

                  It is not yet decided whether the FARC's supreme commander, Manuel
                  "Sureshot" Marulanda, will attend. His absence would be a snub to the
                  government, but FARC fears military and right-wing paramilitary units might
                  try to assassinate him to sabotage the peace process.

                  The entire peace process, even if it does succeed, could take years, and
                  rebels said it remains an open question how long it would hold.

                  "This is like a marriage," Gomez said. "When you get married you can never
                  say how long it will last. It depends on how things go."

                  The FARC, founded as a pro-Soviet Marxist group in 1964, is the
                  hemisphere's largest and oldest guerrilla organisation.
 
 

                  Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited.