A WITNESS AGAINST WAR ON DRUGS

The first slide showed a once-thriving banana tree -- its wilting branches
bending toward the peasant farmer's home, just a few feet away.

The second showed a toddler with ugly lesions running along his legs.

Kathy Knight had hoped the powerful images would jolt those attending her
presentation on America's war on drugs in Colombia.

Apparently, they did. Many shook their heads in disbelief at the unintended
effects of an aerial bombing of herbicides on coca fields.

"The United States' current war against drugs is just not winnable," said
Ms. Knight, addressing the Worcester Pleasant Street Friends Meeting
yesterday. "A lot of innocent people are getting hurt."

Colombia -- a South American country about the size of California and Texas
combined -- has been home to cartels that have processed countless tons of
coca leaves into cocaine for shipment to the United States.

In response, Congress has appropriated billions of dollars to eradicate the
crops.

Last summer, lawmakers approved a $1.3 billion package to Colombia -- about
80 percent of which was funneled to the military.

Authorities used most of the money to buy helicopter gunships, to train
counter-narcotics "battalions" and to fund spraying of drug crops.

The package made Colombia the number three recipient of U.S. military aid,
after Israel and Egypt.

This year, President Bush wants another $1.1 billion to fund similar drug
fighting strategies in other nearby countries. Many believe, however, that
the plan to cut the drug flow from the area is flawed.

"In many ways, it's like putting gasoline on hot coals," said Ms. Knight, a
Newton resident who visited Colombia recently with the watchdog group
Witness for Peace. "Colombia is a complicated country, very much like a
puzzle. There are many things that U.S. officials have to consider, if they
seriously want to stop the cocaine trade."

Ms. Knight said American policy-makers have to study Colombia's rocky
political system, its history, and its nearly flat-lined economy.

Colombia has a population of 39.3 million. Its legal exports -- about $11.4
billion worth a year -- are derived mainly from coffee, coal, bananas and
flowers.

Since the mid-19th century, two political parties have battled for control.
The nation has been ravaged by civil war for four decades. The two parties
managed to keep dictators out, but were not politically inclusive of other
groups.

"Social justice issues were never addressed, so, by the mid-20th century,
the pot was really boiling," Ms. Knight told the local Quakers group.

The political uncertainty bred poverty and displacement, as more and more
peasants lost their land to large commercial and agricultural interests.

Today, it's estimated that 2 million Colombians have no homes. About 56
percent live in poverty, with individuals subsisting on $500 or less annually.

The government is relatively ineffective, controlling mainly metropolitan
areas, and regions are inaccessible because roadways have deteriorated.

Besides their political and economic woes, Colombians are caught in the
struggle between the 120,000-member army, which has one of the worst human
rights records in the world, and the guerrillas.

Besides the army and the rebels, Colombians must contend with paramilitary
units, hired by landowners and others with vested commercial interests.

From time to time, the paramilitary has been used or aided by the formal
military establishment.

Since 1991, 1,500 unionists have been murdered and hundreds of journalists,
academics, clergymen and human rights advocates have been targeted.

With all the instability, the drug cartels established their presence,
making millions cultivating the shrub-like coca plant, the dried leaves of
which contain cocaine.

Coca was so profitable that several indigenous Colombians began growing it
to make money for food or medicine.

"It was their only means of getting cash," Ms. Knight said. "The drug
traffickers would stop by three times a year to collect a few sacks (of
leaves)."

It's believed that up to 18,000 small farmers grow coca.

Ms. Knight and other delegates from Witness for Peace, which has been
taking Americans to conflict spots since 1983, met with peasants, social
rights activists, economists, military and government officials, as well as
U.S. embassy staff.

"With the exception of Colombian and American officials, we received a very
clear message," Ms. Knight said. "People from all over told us that this
war was not about drugs, but about power and money. There's no question
that this strategy greatly increases America's foothold in Latin and South
America."

Ms. Knight said the American government would be better off spending money
on drug treatment programs.

"As long as there's demand, you're going to have drugs," she said.

Ms. Knight added that global debt relief and fair trade programs would cut
into the drug trade by stabilizing the government and economy.

She said the crop eradication program has also failed, even though 74,000
acres are routinely sprayed.

Ms. Knight urged individuals to lobby Congress about changing America's
drug fighting policy.

"We can fight the drug problem while helping the Colombian people," she said.