U.S. PREPARES DRUG BRIGADES FOR COLOMBIA'S FRONT LINES

FORT LARANDIA, Colombia -- A group of U.S. Green Berets stood expectantly
in a steamy jungle clearing in southern Colombia. Suddenly, a rustle in the
bushes put them on alert.

A gruff voice announced: "We are troops of the counter-narcotics brigade.
You are surrounded! Surrender!"

The U.S. officers didn't even flinch.

Instead, they took note of every detail as about 100 Colombian troops
stormed into the clearing amid the thunder of grenades and rifle fire, shot
blanks at two "rebels" guarding the installations of a mock drug lab and
rounded up fellow soldiers acting as peasant workers for a training
exercise on this sprawling army base in southern Caqueta province.

By the end of the month, more than 700 soldiers now under training by 47
U.S. Special Forces instructors here will join the front lines in
Colombia's U.S.-backed war on drugs.

Their graduation May 24 will mark the end of two years of preparation for
three special counter-narcotics battalions that will lead the "push into
southern Colombia" that aims to cut this nation's vast drug crops in half
by 2002.

Funded with the bulk of a $1 billion U.S. aid package known as Plan
Colombia, the 3,000-member counter-narcotics brigade will eventually be
equipped with a fleet of 16 Black Hawk and 25 Super Huey helicopters, which
will begin arriving in July.

"A year ago this was a dream, now it is reality," said a nearly gleeful
Gen. Mario Montoya as he watched the recent training exercise by troops he
will soon command.

The mock drug raid went smoothly, though a senior U.S. trainer noted some
mistakes. "There's always room for improvement," he said, indicating that
the "surprise" element of the raid attack was lost with the rustle of the
bushes on the soldiers' approach.

But the trainers say they have been impressed overall by the Colombian
troops. "They're top-notch," said a Bogota-based U.S. military official.

Once the third battalion graduates, the bulk of the U.S. Special Forces
trainers and their support staff will return to their home base in Fort
Bragg, N.C., but between 10 to 15 instructors will stay on as a permanent
presence here for "touch-up" training for the Colombian troops.

Their experience here has led U.S. officers to dismiss the distinction made
by some officials in Bogota and Washington between drug traffickers and
combatants in Colombia's 37-year-old civil conflict.

The 3,000 members of the three anti-narcotics battalions under Montoya's
command focus on Putumayo and Caqueta provinces, where 60 percent of the
nation's estimated 333,000 acres of coca fields is concentrated. In this
area, leftist rebels and right-wing paramilitary groups run the show.

Colombia produces some 560 metric tons of cocaine a year, and U.S. and
Colombian officials say the trade is a source of millions of dollars in
funding for both groups.

In each of the 75 counter-narcotics operations in Caqueta and Putumayo
since December, Colombian troops have engaged with both guerrillas and
members of the far-right paramilitary forces, according to Montoya.

One officer, two noncommissioned officers and six soldiers have been killed
in the operations led by the first and second counter-narcotics battalions,
he said.

"In this area there is no difference" between traffickers and combatants, a
Bogota-based U.S. military official said here.

Still, the Special Forces trainers stress to their students the importance
of accuracy in determining their targets. While armed rebels or
paramilitaries may guard labs or crops, civilians work in the fields and
the rustic "kitchens" where coca leaves are transformed into paste and
later into powder cocaine.

"There is a very strong emphasis on marksmanship and target discrimination,
ensuring that the soldiers identify targets as belligerent before they
engage them," a senior U.S. trainer at Larandia said.

Each member of the U.S.-funded battalion is investigated to weed out any
who have been accused or even suspected of rights abuses or connections
with drug trafficking.

Since December, the two counter-narcotics battalions already in action have
killed 52 rebels and paramilitaries in operations to take down 160 cocaine
labs and to clear the way for fumigation planes to destroy some 73,500
acres of coca crops.