Posted on 06/16/2003 7:42:48 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
GUASCA, Colombia - President Alvaro Uribe helped deploy the nation's latest weapon in a nearly 40-year civil war, sending 10,000 peasant soldiers back to their villages Monday to confront rebels and paramilitary fighters.
The soldiers, who completed three months of military training, were sent to 426 villages across this Andean nation. The government hopes their knowledge of the terrain and people of their home areas will help turn the tide in Colombia's conflict, which kills some 3,500 people — most of them civilians — each year.
The "soldados campesinos" have been trained in combat tactics and how to respect human rights. Some 5,000 peasant soldiers were trained and deployed earlier this year.
Uribe, standing in a school soccer field in Guasca, urged the peasant soldiers to fight hard for their country. He denounced both the rebels and paramilitaries as outlaws who must be dealt with severely.
"This is not the hour to administer the conflict," Uribe said. "This is the hour to defeat terrorism."
The rebels began waging war in Colombia four decades ago, claiming to fight for Colombia's majority poor, but since have turned to drug trafficking, kidnapping and extortion. They often attack isolated villages in Colombia.
Their paramilitary foes also traffic in drugs.
Human rights groups and foreign diplomats say they are watching whether the government's new strategy will lead to abuses. When Uribe governed Antioquia state in the 1990s, some armed citizens' groups there were accused of serious human rights abuses and were infiltrated by paramilitary death squads.
Guasca, a Spanish colonial town 25 miles northeast of Bogota, is in an area where the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the nation's main rebel group, has a presence.
Carlos Sarmiento, a 62-year-old construction worker whose son, Eduardo, is one of the new soldiers, watched the ceremony with pride and apprehension.
"We now feel much safer now because the village will be better defended," Sarmiento said. "But of course, we can't help but feel worried about our sons."
The newly minted soldiers stood sternly in formation, assault rifles at their sides, as Uribe walked through their ranks. Similar ceremonies were held Monday in villages across Colombia.
"I'm proud to be here to protect my village and my family," said 20-year-old Daniel Rodriguez, clad in a camouflage uniform.
The government also has deployed police officers to 157 municipalities that previously had no police presence.
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