U.S. DRUG WAR

Colombia Plan Lacks World Support

The American plan to address cocaine-fueled civil war in Colombia with
billions of dollars in military and economic development has received
little financial support from the Colombian government and is meeting
resistance from other nations.

The United states in July approved $1.3 billion in mostly military aid as
its share of the $7.5 billion Plan Colombia, envisioned as an international
solution to the left-wing guerrilla war that is financed by drug profits
and has split the South American country.

American aid includes Black Hawk helicopters to assist the Colombian
military in striking the Marxist-led guerrillas who control nearly half the
country. The farreaching plan also envisioned assistance to induce
Colombians to abandon their coca production in favor of other agricultural
staples.

The initiative called for Colombia to provide $4.5 billion with the rest
coming from other nations; neither has been forthcoming.

Although the Clinton administration has tried to present Plan Colombia,
announced a year ago, as the work of the country's president, Andres
Pastrana, he has allocated only $15 million to the project. International
contributions have also failed to meet U.S. expaectations.

Spain, Norway, Japan, the United Nations and international lending
institutions have pledged $600 million, but most of Europe has yet to
respond as noted by the General Accounting Office.

One European diplomat said the European Union will not support Plan
Colombia, which they see as more American than Colombian, aimed at
countering America's drug crisis rather than boosting Colombia's economic
programs.

"They see it as something that was cooked up in Washington," said Michael
Shifter, a senior fellow at the Inter-American Dialogue, "If other
countries saw this was moving in the direction of being more responsive to
Colombian concerns, they would support it."

The European Union is meeting later this month, but one envoy doubted it
would endorse the American Plan Colombia.

Other Latin American nations have also balked at supporting the military
aspects of the proposal, fearing it may spill over into their territory.
Last week, a Colombian guerrilla group kidnapped five American oil workers
in Ecuador.

America's involvement in Colombia has drawn comparisons to Vietman and El
Salvador, where the Uniited States backed the government against leftist
guerrillas despite widespread fear that the military and government forces
were involved in human rights abuses.

Plan Colombia is starting to look like the beginnings of U.S. involvement
in a nation's civil war.