SENATOR REFLECTS ON COLOMBIA TRIP

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Sen. Paul Wellstone, steadfast opponent of the Clinton
administration's $1.3 billion anti-drug aid package for Colombia, returned
from an inspection tour of the country Friday, saying human rights
violations were flagrant and the root of the country's turmoil.

"So many of the people there doing the human rights work are under siege,"
the Minnesota Democrat said at a news conference. "The violence there is so
pervasive."

Wellstone fought unsuccessfully to convert some of the vast sums earmarked
for Colombia to domestic drug treatment programs. He claims U.S. spending
- -- mainly for helicopters and other military equipment -- will only worsen
the country's guerrilla war and could drag the United States into the
four-decade old conflict.

"He was the only one out there -- or at least the loudest out there -- who
was worried about the effect it would have in getting the United States
into the conflict, the effect on the peace process and whether it would
affect drug policy at all," said Adam Isacson of the Center for
International Policy, which opposes the aid plan.

After President Clinton signed the aid package in July, Wellstone continued
to be outspoken, criticizing the administration for waiving human rights
conditions that could have blocked the aid and opposing Republican efforts
to add another $99 million to it.

The senator said U.S. drug strategy is destined to fail unless poor
Colombians have an alternative to the drug traffickers and the United
States cuts its demand for cocaine. The leftist rebels fighting the
government partly finance their insurgency through pay for protecting coca
fields and cocaine laboratories.

"We're too lopsided on the military part and not enough on the economic
development part," he said.

During the tour, Wellstone and U.S. Ambassador Anne Patterson visited
Barrancabermeja, called the violent country's deadliest town. Human rights
activists claim there have been 500 political murders there this year
alone, as the right-wing paramilitary and rebels fight to control the region.

Hours before Wellstone and Patterson arrived, police said they found two
shrapnel-encased land mines along the road from the airport into the city.
The two Americans flew by helicopter from the airfield, bypassing the area.

Police Col. Jose Miguel Villar said the mines were set in an assassination
attempt and arrested a suspected member of the rebel National Liberation
Army, who is being questioned.

But Colombian National Police and the U.S. State Department said they did
not think Wellstone and Patterson had been targeted.

"I don't know whether I was targeted, but I certainly know that the human
rights activists are targeted," Wellstone said. "It's a small story that
tells the larger story of what's happening in Colombia. It's so tragic. And
I'm glad that I went."

The senator said he believed his Colombian hosts used the bomb story to
dissuade him from traveling to other dangerous regions.