Ecuador asks Colombia to send troops to border to contain rebels

[Judi Lynn]

Ecuador asks Colombia to send troops to border to contain rebels
The nation says its neighbor must do more to prevent its civil conflict from spilling over.
By Chris Kraul, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
August 29, 2008

SAN LORENZO, ECUADOR -- With no sign of a thaw in their frozen diplomatic relations, Ecuador this week called on Colombia to increase its military presence along their shared border to check the spillover of rebel groups, drug trafficking and war refugees.

The demand was one of several laid out by officials as they argued that their nation had paid too high a price for its neighbor's decades-long civil conflict and that Colombia must take more responsibility for the encroaching violence.

The two nations seem far from repairing the rift triggered six months ago, when Colombian troops crossed the border to kill a rebel leader holed up in Ecuador. Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa deployed troops along the border and two days later cut diplomatic ties.

Despite the intercession of the Organization of American States and the Carter Center and a meeting this month between the two nations' foreign ministers, relations remain icy.

In an interview this week, Ecuadorean Foreign Minister Maria Isabel Salvador said her country wanted Colombia to send an unspecified number of additional troops to the 450-mile border accompanied by international observers.

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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-ecuador29-2008aug29,0,2760707.story