PERU SEEKS TO RESTART DRUG-INTERDICTION FLIGHTS

LIMA, Peru (AP) -- Peru plans to urge Secretary of State Colin L. Powell
to resume the U.S.-backed antidrug flights suspended after the Peruvian air
force mistakenly shot down an American missionary plane this spring.

Powell is scheduled to visit Lima on Monday and Tuesday for an assembly of
the Organization of American States.

Foreign Minister Diego Garcia Sayan said Peruvian officials would ask for
clarification of "the dates and conditions in which aerial
drug-interdiction flights could restart."

The missionary plane was shot from the sky April 20 after it was initially
identified as a possible drug flight by a CIA-operated surveillance plane
and then fired on by a Peruvian military jet. A Baptist missionary,
Veronica Bowers, and her 7-month-old daughter, Charity, were killed.

Results of a U.S.-Peruvian investigation released Aug. 2 found that an
overloaded communications system, procedural errors, and translation
problems between the English-speaking CIA-hired crew and Spanish-speaking
air-force pilots had contributed to the tragedy.

When the report was issued, Maj. Gen. Jorge Kisic, operations chief of
Peru's air force, said Peru's skies had been "inundated by narcotics
traffickers" since the surveillance and interception flights were halted
over Peru and Colombia.

However, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Rand Beers, who headed the
American side of the investigative commission, said no evidence of
increased trafficking had been seen.

Congress and the Bush administration are waiting for a follow-up report
being prepared by Morris Busby, a former U.S. ambassador to Colombia,
before deciding whether to resume the flights. The report is not expected
for several weeks.

Colombian President Andres Pastrana, who is scheduled to meet Powell later
Tuesday and Wednesday, also urged Washington to restart the interdiction
program and reestablish intelligence sharing about suspected drug flights.