Violence pins down thousands of rural Colombians

BOGOTA (Reuters) - More than 4,400 Colombians were driven from their rural communities or pinned down in their homes on Monday by gunfights among leftist rebels, other armed groups and state security forces, the Red Cross said.

The fighting has taken place over recent days in the southwest provinces of Cauca and Narino, which are used by Marxist guerrillas and right-wing paramilitary militias to produce and smuggle cocaine to the Pacific coast.

"About half of victims affected by the fighting cannot leave their homes to work, get food or access to basic necessities. The other half have been forced from their homes by the fighting," said Yves Heller, spokesman in Colombia for the International Committee of the Red Cross.

The aid group is providing assistance to the victims.

Violence is down in this Andean country since U.S.-backed President Alvaro Uribe first won office in 2002 on promises of crushing the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, which has been fighting a left-wing insurgency since 1964.

The cities have become much safer over the past six years. But thousands of Colombians are still killed, displaced or maimed by land mines every year, mostly in rural areas.

The country is still exporting about 600 tonnes of cocaine annually, despite billions of dollars in U.S. aid aimed at cracking down on the trade.

A bomb, blamed by authorities on the FARC, killed four people in the city of Cali early on Monday.

(Reporting by Hugh Bronstein; Editing by Peter Cooney)