OFFICIALS DISMISS ALLEGATIONS OVER ANTI-DRUG FUMIGATIONS

Colombia Says Drug Lords Are Using Smear Tactics

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.

=46armers and a coalition of governors from southern Colombia are demanding
an end to the fumigation. The governors have visited 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. This South
American country 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
also 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 was quoted as saying in El
Tiempo, Colombia's most widely read daily. The U.S. Embassy confirmed the
comment was accurately quoted by the Bogota newspaper.

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

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 that it has stopped supplying an
additive used with the glyphosate, saying that use of the two agents
together had not been tested.