Yet Mr. Pastrana stuck to his peace plan, which included periodic renewals of the rebel zone, which is about the size of Switzerland.

In the rebel zone, a life could depend on the testimony of a parish priest concerning the religious practice of the accused.

About 100,000 people live in the former rebel zone.

This afternoon, the commander of what is to be a 3,250-member West African "interposition force" sent here to stop the violence on both sides, crossed over to visit the rebel zone.

Much of the rebel zone was a wasteland today.

And yet, at a roadside market in the rebel zone on this day, chicken and beef were for sale, luxuries not seen on the other side.

"People are dying of hunger, bombs and bullets," said C-Musa Sheriff, a church administrator in the rebel zone.

The Committee talks of recapturing Marsai and splitting the rebel zone in half.

Armed men in four-wheel-drive vehicles then whisked Senator Jorge Eduardo Gechem Turbay off toward the rebel zone.

He wanted to knock out the city to unify the two sections of the rebel zone and leave the left flank of the advancing columns covered by the Portuguese border.