Colombia rebels lay down law in demilitarized zone

CNN November 8, 1998 Colombia rebels lay down law in demilitarized zone

                  SAN VICENTE DEL CAGUAN, Colombia, Nov 8 (Reuters) - Marxist
                  rebels began laying down the law in this corner of southeast Colombia this
                  weekend as government security forces pulled out to make way for peace
                  talks.

                  The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) -- the largest
                  guerrilla force in the hemisphere -- effectively took control of five
                  municipalities straddling Caqueta and Meta provinces -- an area the size of
                  Switzerland -- from Saturday.

                  The government ordered its own security forces to pull out for three months
                  to open the way for the first talks in six years aimed at ending the country's
                  bloody civil conflict that has claimed at least 35,000 lives in the last 10 years.

During the demilitarization period, the FARC has agreed to set up a civic
police of "upstanding adult citizens" in conjunction with the local government.

                  However, the real guardians of revolutionary justice could be the hundreds
                  of plainclothes guerrilla fighters that carry out political and social work in the
                  towns and villages.

                  As in other areas that fall under the influence of the rebels, anybody who
                  gets into a brawl or spreads malicious rumours may be hauled off to repair
                  dirt roads, sent to plant crops or carve out farm plots from virgin jungle.

Murderers may be sentenced to at least 10 years working to support their
victims' family or may be summarily executed.

Army informants or suspected death-squad members are likely to be shot on
sight.

                  And while revolutionary justice may seem unduly harsh to many, the
                  government admits that 95 percent of all crimes committed in Colombia go
                  unpunished by regular courts.

                  "The guerrillas are putting certain laws into force, but that's no different from
                  anywhere else where they have a presence," one restaurant owner in San
                  Vicente, the largest of five towns in the demilitarized zone, said. "We can still
                  go out and drink and party. We're not hiding behind closed doors."

                  In an effort to reduce the risk of attacks by their ultra- right paramilitary foes,
                  the FARC has banned all movement of vehicles and boats on roads and
                  rivers outside the main towns in the demilitarized zone between dusk and
                  dawn.

Those who defy the order face a fine of more than $300 and vehicles may
be confiscated or burned, rebel sources said.

                  "Law and order will be much better while it is the hands of the civic police,"
                  said rebel commander Joaquin Gomez, head of the FARC's Southern Bloc
                  division and one of three senior guerrilla leaders appointed to head
                  negotiations with the government.