OFFICIALS DIVIDED ON DRUG CROP SPRAYING

BOGOTA -- Environmental authorities in Colombia have accused the military
of spraying glyphosate herbicide on drug crops without conducting adequate
assessments of the harm it causes to human health and the environment, and
of failing to mitigate such impacts.

In the department of Putumayo alone, where 60 percent of Colombia's coca
plantations are found, some 30,000 hectares of the crop were destroyed from
January to March of this year. That total was the goal set to be achieved
within two years, according to the commander of the anti-narcotics police,
Mario Montoya.

But this efficiency of the police force contrasts with the stance of the
Environment Ministry on the matter. Environment officials consider the
Environmental Management Plan of the National Narcotics Directorate to be
"inconsistent and ambiguous.'

The ministry stated in May that the plan "does not precisely determine
which strategic ecosystems are exposed to fumigation, nor the regions that,
because of their high biological diversity, must be excluded" from the
operations.

The government agency also pointed out that there are no existing plans for
technical and scientific support to evaluate the impact of glyphosate on
natural resources, and that the risk assessment does not outline actions
for mitigating or counteracting harmful effects.

The Environment Ministry gave the National Narcotics Directorate --
entrusted with executing the illicit crop eradication program -- six months
to draft a plan of concrete and systematic measures to reduce the
consequences of the herbicide sprayed over plantations of coca, the basic
ingredient of cocaine, of marijuana, and of poppies, used to make heroin.

In addition, the policing body should verify the environmental impacts of
the aerial spraying so far this year in Putumayo, launch a recovery program
for the area and hire an independent auditor to evaluate the results of the
new measures, says the ministry.

For now, the government has ordered a halt to the fumigations in Putumayo
as officials await the outcome of agreements recently signed with the local
peasant communities for the voluntary eradication of illicit crops by hand.

But a large component of Plan Colombia, the initiative promoted by
President Andrs Pastrana with financial assistance from other countries, is
the eradication of coca plantations considered "industrial-size" -- that
is, more than three hectares.

The spraying of glyphosate over illegal crops, a practice dating back to
the late 1970s, is sharply criticised by environmentalists and by human
rights organizations because of its negative effects on human health and on
the subsistence crops of peasant farmers.

Ricardo Vargas, a researcher at Accin Andina, a non-governmental group that
monitors drug trafficking in the region, told IPS that glyphosate has been
applied for years in efforts to wipe out drug crops, but he pointed out
that the government has not conducted rigorous studies of its effects on
human health and the environment.

The main objections against glyphosate fumigations are based on the fact
that it involves a broad-spectrum toxic agent that is not recommended for
aerial applications, one that destroys all crops, contaminates water
supplies, and causes skin and respiratory ailments in humans.

In addition, the spraying operations conducted during the last two decades
in 22 of Colombia's 32 departments forced hundreds of peasant families to
abandon their lands.

The People's Defender (Ombudsman), a government office, called for a halt
to the fumigations in May after receiving 1,117 complaints from small
farmers who said the eradication operations -- whether with glyphosate or
other chemical products -- had damaged their food crops or caused health
problems in their families.

The fumigation missions follow the guidelines of the United States
anti-drug plan, which focuses on the repression of the cultivation and
manufacture of the narcotics in producing countries and "confuses drug
trafficking with illicit crops," commented Vargas.

The United Nations International Drug Control Program (UNDCP) has stated
that the drug crop eradication policy has been a failure in Colombia.

According to the UNDCP's latest report, despite the fumigation of 60,000
hectares of coca fields in 2000, the total area planted with the crop
expanded to 162,000 hectares, an area comparable to the combined total of
Colombia, Peru and Bolivia just a few years ago.

The eradication of illicit crops is one of the central goals of Plan
Colombia, which has $ 1.3 billion in aid from the United States, 80 percent
of which is earmarked for military aid. It is this component, say local and
international human rights groups, that is causing an escalation of the
country's decades-long civil war.

The government defines Plan Colombia, with a price tag of $ 7.5 billion, as
a strategy for peace and the anti-drug effort. But non-governmental
organizations charge that it is intensifying the armed conflict, sinking
the population deeper into poverty and devastating the ecosystems of the
Colombian Amazon.

According to Vargas, Plan Colombia is "clearly the government's commitment
to experimenting with biological methods for eradicating illicit crops over
the next five years," the period Pastrana set for completing the
anti-narcotics fight.