COCA FARMERS PROTEST CROP ERADICATION

A group of calloused and sunburned coca farmers is protesting the
U.S.-backed effort to eradicate drug crops in this remote corner of
northeast Colombia.

Some 3,500 farmers began gathering last week in this small town near
the Venezuela border. Frustrated by the lack of response from the
government, on Tuesday evening the protesters hurled firebombs and
rocks at riot units, who responded with tear gas. Two officers
suffered minor injuries.

Businesses have closed in Tibu, a town of about 12,000, and residents
have hidden in their homes. The farmers vowed to remain until the
government sends a representative to hear their concerns.

It is the first grass-roots protest to turn violent since the $1.3
billion U.S. aid initiative began last year, with mostly military
support toward eliminating Colombia's drug crops.

Farmers claim that in addition to eliminating crops of coca - the raw
ingredient of cocaine - the herbicide is also killing cattle and yucca
crops, and contaminating the water supply.

"We agree with manual eradication, without contaminating the
environment and without harming the farmers," said Nelson Flores, 26,
a protest leader.

The government has sprayed herbicide from planes on nearly 5,000 acres
of the region's 17,000 acres of coca crops.

The aerial spraying is part of President Andres Pastrana's Plan
Colombia, a $ 7.5 billion program to eliminate narcotics production.

The protesters are camping in Tibu's sports stadium, hanging hammocks,
cooking out in the open and setting up a makeshift shelter to shield
themselves from frequent rain showers.

Over the weekend, the farmers rioted, looting stores, and burning the
police station where they believed some of the herbicides were being
stored. The blaze also destroyed the city fire station and the state
telephone company offices. They also attacked a store of chemicals
being kept at the town's airstrip.

"If the government doesn't want to come (meet with the farmers), we
will make them regret it," said Ricardo Arboleda, one of the protesters.

Many of the farmers wonder why the government is spraying in this
region while officials have agreed to a manual eradication program in
Caqueta and Putumayo states, on the border with Ecuador.

The chief of the anti-narcotics police, Gen. Gustavo Socha, blamed the
protests in Tibu on right-wing paramilitary groups. The paramilitaries
took over the region in May 1999, breaking 15 years of domination by
leftist guerrillas. Both groups finance their operations by taxing
coca production.

The farmers deny they're backed by anyone.