Kids, Guns And Colombia

October 26, 1985|By Brown

Sending children into battle is the latest tactic Colombian rebels are using in their fight against the government: Three girls aged 12, 13 and 14 -- scarcely bigger than the assault rifles they carried -- have died in a shootout with army troops. The Colombian government isn't in any danger of being overthrown by these rebels, but Columbia is making every effort to reach a peaceful settlement with them. Yet what also deserves attention is the inequality in Colombia that provides ammunition for the rebels' cause. Rather than pacifying an enemy, Colombia should be thinking about reforms for the rest of its people.

Colombian President Belisario Betancur came to office in 1982 promising a cease-fire to do away with the violence that has hung over his country since the mid-1950s. But signing a truce with four of the five major rebel groups only helped the rebels by giving them some political importance and a breathing period in which to reorganize their forces. Furthermore, they have refused to lay down their arms, and one of the groups has broken the truce. That suggests that the rebels have a greater interest in taking over the government than in peace and reform.

But the poor, who make up 80 percent of Colombia's population, are interested in reform, and seeing to their economic, social and political needs is the best way to discourage the rebels. For example, allowing more people to own land would win a lot of popular support. As it stands, 3 percent of the landowners possess more than half of the land.

Furthermore, those who are uneducated don't have the tools to interpret the validity of what the rebels are telling them. So it's senseless that primary schools are few and far between in the countryside and that even in the nation's capital 20 percent of students stay home because there's no room. For those who do attend, schools often have dirt floors, no lighting and no toilets.

In terms of civil liberties, the victims of human-rights abuses are prime candidates for the rebels' propaganda, which means that torture, disappearances and illegal executions must be investigated and controlled. Stemming a 30-year tide of violence is no easy task, but reforms would give the government a fighting chance. It's the least the Colombian people deserve.

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