COLOMBIA HERBICIDE CAMPAIGN DRAWS FIRE

Critics Site Health Concerns; U.S. Insists Spraying Continue

BOGOTA, Colombia - Battle lines are being drawn over the massive
fumigation of drug crops in Colombia, with opponents saying it poses
health risks while the U.S. ambassador warns that aid could be
withheld if the Washington-backed plan is scrapped.

The country's top anti-narcotics enforcer, meanwhile, is accusing drug
traffickers -- who have lost millions of dollars in profits -- of
waging a smear campaign against Washington's $1.3 billion counterdrug
offensive.

"What I have seen is a plot against the fumigations," Gen. Gustavo
Socha, chief of the anti-narcotics police, told The Associated Press
on Saturday. "The drug traffickers are generating false information
and forcing people to disseminate it."

Though he did not provide specific examples, Socha said drug
traffickers were forcing peasants to give false testimony about
alleged illnesses from the sprayings.

Farmers and a coalition of governors from southern Colombia are
demanding an end to the fumigation. The governors have visited the
U.S. Congress to make their case.

The fumigation drive, in which planes spray herbicide on drug crops
protected by leftist rebels and rival paramilitary forces, is the key
to Washington's strategy to curb drug production in Colombia. Colombia
is the leading supplier of cocaine and heroin to the United States.

The campaign has drawn increasing fire in recent weeks from critics
who say the chemicals dropped from the planes are not only harmful to
people but are polluting one of the world's richest ecosystems. A
judge in Bogota on July 27 ordered a temporary halt of the spraying in
Amazonian Indian lands.

It appears doubtful the Colombian government will jettison the
sprayings nationwide. But, underscoring Washington's concern about the
turn of events, U.S. Ambassador Anne Patterson warned that a permanent
halt could jeopardize U.S. aid.

"I have no doubt that many voices in the U.S. Congress would call for
an end to assistance to Colombia," Patterson said.

Patterson did not elaborate on what assistance would be cut.
Washington's $1.3 billion contribution to the anti-drug offensive,
dubbed Plan Colombia, is already in the pipeline.

It is paying for helicopters to ferry troops to drug-producing regions
controlled by Colombia's illegal armed groups. The rival groups, along
with the government, are embroiled in a 37-year civil war fueled by
the drug trade.

U.S. officials insist the herbicide, glyphosate, which is produced by
the U.S. chemical company Monsanto, is safe. But the British company
Imperial Chemical Industries confirmed Friday it has stopped supplying
an additive used with the glyphosate, saying that use of the two
agents together had not been tested.

The crop dusters have blanketed 123,500 acres of cocaine-producing
crops since the campaign was launched last December. Recent U.S.
estimates showed 336,400 acres of coca, the main ingredient in
cocaine, were being cultivated in Colombia. Colombian police say
15,300 acres were being used to grow poppy, from which heroin is made.