MEDELLIN, Colombia (AP) -- The children here play a unique version of
                  cops and robbers -- cops and guerrillas -- but since security forces
                  stormed this poor neighborhood in October to oust the leftist rebels that
                  controlled it, the game has evolved.

                  Now the children, sensitive to which side seems to have the advantage, want to be
                  police.

                  "I want to be a police officer," 7-year-old Andres Montoya yells as he and his friends
                  divide up sides. "They have lots of guns and lots of backup."

                  The children's game seems to reflect the changes in this neighborhood, which was
                  virtually abandoned by the police for almost a decade.

                  More than 1,000 soldiers and police raided the neighborhood in Colombia's
                  second-largest city October 16 to drive out militia members tied to leftist rebel
                  groups.

                  Now, soldiers and police stand guard on street corners while the residents begin to
                  rebuild homes and businesses destroyed in days of fighting, which killed 13 and
                  injured dozens.

                  Local residents say they are happy with the new police presence, but wonder how
                  long it will last.

                  "We're content, but not confident," Diana Montoya, Andres' aunt and a community
                  leader, said as she climbed the steep stairs that lead to the top of this hillside
                  neighborhood.

                  "We still don't know if they (the security forces) are going to stay," she said.

                  Some neighborhoods in Medellin are still controlled by leftist rebels, right-wing
                  paramilitaries, or organized crime, but in District 13, the balance of power has
                  shifted to the government.

                  A pool hall known as the "red salon" used to be the site of negotiations over
                  "express kidnappings," in which hostages were taken for a few hours and released
                  in exchange for quick cash payments.

                  These days, soldiers and police hang out nearby, chatting with residents.

                  Residents say the armed groups, either rebels or criminal gangs, took over the
                  neighborhood a decade ago, and at first, they were welcome because they
                  maintained order.

                  But little by little, their authority turned into a dictatorship of young men with big guns.
                  They controlled who could enter the neighborhood, even setting up sand roadblocks.
                  And they stole the food the government sent for the schoolchildren, residents say.

                  "It wasn't what one would want, but you adapted until it became unbearable," said
                  Ramon Gomez, 72, as he laid bricks to rebuild his home that was destroyed in the
                  fighting.

                  "Here, there had to be many deaths for the people to finally decide to give
                  information (to authorities) so the police would come in," he said.

                  The arrival of security forces hasn't been without problems.

                  Colombians were shocked by television footage of helicopter gunships strafing the
                  hills and troops being airlifted to soccer fields to fight house-to-house -- images of a
                  new phase in a civil war that has largely been fought in the countryside.

                  Residents also have complained of a "witch hunt," with masked informants
                  accompanying police around the neighborhood to point out alleged rebel
                  collaborators. The government's human rights' ombudsman has received
                  complaints of disappearances.

                  Police commander Gen. Leonardo Gallego denied the charges and said that of the
                  almost 400 people detained, 205 have been released.

                  "We are investigating if there could have been abuses and if that is the case, we will
                  take corrective measures," he said.

                  The children who are growing up in this violent neighborhood remember, in their
                  games, the way things used to be.

                  When Montoya returned to her home, little Andres eagerly showed her the hiding
                  place he and his friends had created to stash their "hostages."