FARMER KILLED IN COCA PICKERS' PROTEST

BOGOTA, Colombia -- A peasant farmer was killed and a police officer
hurt when thousands of coca pickers angry at U.S.-backed spraying of
drug crops clashed with riot police in rural Colombia, officials said
Thursday.

The clashes -- the first violent protests by coca farmers since a
$1-billion U.S. aid program to destroy their crops began in 2000 --
broke out late Wednesday in the village of Tibu in northeastern
Colombia.

About 3,000 farmers and field workers have protested since last weekend
against an aerial fumigation campaign to eradicate plantations of coca
leaf -- the raw material for cocaine. On Tuesday, farmers ransacked
stores, burned tires and hurled rocks and firebombs at police, who fired
back with tear gas.

The farmers say the spraying campaign is destroying their meager
livelihoods and that the herbicide used is poisoning legal crops and
contaminating rivers.

The United States, the world's biggest consumer of cocaine, is funding
helicopter-borne anti-drug battalions to protect the aerial spraying of
herbicide in the jungles and mountains controlled by outlawed armed
groups fighting in Colombia's 37-year-old war.