BOGOTA (IPS)�The international community should "respectfully accompany" Colom-bia�s peace process, Guatemalan indigenous leader and Nobel Peace prize-winner Rigoberta Mench� urged at the start of a week of activities against all forms of violence in Colombia.

Ms. Mench� expressed her commitment to Colombia�s peace process at the start of the third annual week of activities Sept. 6, organized by civil society, that ended with the signing of a plebiscite calling for a cease-fire.

"Armed intervention is not synonymous with peace," the internationally renowned human rights activist said, in allusion to reiterated reports that the United States was seeking support for a possible multilateral military action against the "threat to hemispheric security" represented by Colombia�s insurgents and drug trade.

Alfredo Rangel, a researcher at the non-governmental Social Foundation, said the United States, in its bid to depict the conflict in Colombia as a threat to regional security, "is obligating countries in the region to take a stance with respect to an improbable military intervention, which can be ruled out."

Ms. Mench� said Kosovo was the latest case illustrating that intervention and invasion "do not build roads towards peace."

"Many lives were lost, and twice the funds used to destroy the country will have to be invested to rebuild," she said of the Yugoslav province.

The solution to the decades-old armed conflict in Colombia is in the hands of Colombians, and should be respected by the United States and the international community as a whole, and accompanied in the manner requested by the country, Ms. Mench� maintained.

President Hugo Ch�vez of Venezuela�one of the neighboring countries most heavily affected by the activities of armed Colombian groups along its border�expressed a similar position.

In the Brazilian city of Manaos, President Ch�vez said solutions to the armed conflict must emerge from Colombians themselves, and invited leaders in the region to put themselves "at the service of Colombia." He added that his country had offered to act as peace broker if requested by the parties to the conflict.

Speaking with the correspondent of the Bogota daily El Espectador in Manaos, President Ch�vez said he concurred with Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso�s opposition to any kind of military intervention in Colombia.

The week of activities was the third held by Redepaz since 1997, when 10 million people�of a total population of 37 million�demanded peace by signing a call for an end to all forms of violence and a negotiated solution to the armed conflict.

Gloria Cuartas, with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization�s (UNESCO) office on Women and Violence, said the peace week was a call by civil society to the parties to the conflict to immediately engage in peace talks and set out on "the road to the reconstruction of Colombia."

The UN official said offensives by the insurgents and the government�s refusal to work toward a renewal of peace talks contributed to the polarization of sectors within and outside the country "that want military solutions."

In the face of talk of intervention, Kosovo and other cases "should put the Colombian people on alert," said Ms. Cuartas.

While the U.S. State Department expresses support for the peace process, the Department of Defense continues to provide equipment and technical, logistical and intelligence assistance to Colombia�s armed forces, making this South American country one of the top recipients of U.S. military aid.

Peace talks between the 15,000-member Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the government are at a standstill over discrepancies regarding the creation of an international commission to oversee negotiations.