CROP PROGRAMME DESERVES PATIENCE

The Colombian government appears to be threatening a successful programme
of crop substitution among the country's hilltribe Indians. If the
heavy-handed actions of Bogota stop the campaign to replace the poppies, it
will be a double setback for Colombia. The forces behind the growing crop
of poppies in the highlands are currently expanding the nation's already
huge trade in cocaine and heroin. They also happen to be the leftist forces
which have waged a long and deadly war in Colombia for years. Bogota's
recent actions play into the rebels' hands in both the drug and political wars.

The crux of the matter is simple. The United Nations is backing a crop
substitution project to replace poppies with other cash crops. The campaign
is possible-it has already been wildly successful in Thailand. But just as
the Guambiano Indians were accepting the programme and beginning to work
with authorities, the government has displayed an ill-considered and
harmful impatience.

Indians and independent sources say the government has begun spraying the
opium crops with herbicides. The Indians oppose the spraying in principle,
but their main complaint is serious. Government planes allegedly are
dumping herbicides on ordinary crops. This may be accidental in some cases,
since many Indian farmers plant the poppies among their vegetables. If
field reports are true, however, it appears that in many cases there is no
attempt even to target opium fields.

This puts the entire, highly promising campaign against heroin in Colombia
under a cloud, and for no good reason. The United Nations, which has
protested and called for neutral observers, should move immediately to
advise the government, and to publicise the dangers involved. The Colombian
courts have ordered a halt to all aerial spraying, but this is also a
stopgap solution. NGOs are already on the ground, and in a position to
report. The government should heed such international aid workers.

The spraying in Colombia is clearly raising opposition to Bogota among the
Indians. The UN and NGOs said last week the Guambiano people were
enthusiastic about crop substitution. They are as eager as Thais to choose
their own crops and take them to market. Bogota may be throwing away tonnes
of good will.

It may be even worse, because the rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces
of Colombia, or Farc, have responded even more badly. Farc soldiers
kidnapped three German aid workers, claiming they were behind the aerial
spraying. Villagers were outraged, and said the NGO representatives were
helping them replace the poppies. They have threatened to try to attack the
rebels to retrieve their German friends.

We in Thailand can relate to this campaign. His Majesty the King started
the first such crop substitution programme for our hilltribes. It received
international help. In less than a generation, opium disappeared from
Thailand as a cash crop. Instead of hilltribes being forced to grow one
crop and sell it to criminal gangs at a fixed price, they could grow a
variety of crops and take them to free markets.

One can only hope that cooler heads in Bogota will resume co-operation with
the United Nations on crop substitution. Colombia should realise the
project is not a quick fix to the growing problem of heroin. But neither is
a massive spraying campaign, which has already angered hill people and may
alienate them.

If applied correctly, with advice and forethought, crop substitution can
wipe out all commercial opium. Farmers will move to more profitable and
safer crops. We already know this can happen, because it has happened in
Thailand. Such a feat in Colombia would be a double victory in the war
against the leftists and drug traffickers.