U.S. GREEN BERETS TRAIN COLOMBIANS

LARANDIA ARMY BASE, Colombia (AP) - U.S. Green Beret trainers watched
proudly as Colombian troops reacted to an "ambush" with a withering blast
of gunfire and by hurling hand grenades.

The aggressive response during training exercises - opened for the first
time to journalists on Friday - was one the U.S. Special Forces have been
instilling into their charges, who will soon combat drug trafficking in an
area swarming with rebels and paramilitaries.

The battalion will finish its months-long training in this sprawling jungle
base on May 24, and will join two other counternarcotics battalions - a
total of 3,000 soldiers - that have been trained by the Green Berets since
April 1999.

Amid criticism from human rights groups and even the U.S. State Department
that Colombian security forces have a poor human rights record, the U.S.
Embassy investigated each of the 3,000 soldiers to make sure they have not
been accused of abuses or drug trafficking.

But they will likely be conducting joint anti-drug operations with
Colombian counterguerrilla battalions which have not undergone such
scrutiny - and which have a reputation of maintaining covert links with the
paramilitary United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, which has been
massacring suspected rebel collaborators.

Under a brooding gray sky, the Green Berets - from the 7th Special Forces
Group based in Fort Bragg, N.C. - watched their students stealthily
approach a mock drug lab manned by soldiers pretending to be rebels and
peasant farmers who were processing coca leaves into cocaine.

The bit of Hollywood theatrics was eerie, considering that not far from the
perimeter of this huge base in southern Caqueta state there are real coca
labs guarded by rebels.

"We are troops of the counternarcotics battalion! You are completely
surrounded," shouted one of the Colombian soldiers after his squad had
closed in.

A "rebel" clad in a dark green uniform and black rubber boots opened fire,
and was immediately cut down by the soldiers, who rushed into the muddy
clearing. A furious exchange of gunfire, using blanks, ensued.

The U.S. trainers, clad in camouflage fatigues and wearing floppy "boonie"
hats, said they try to instill "target discrimination" in their students,
in the hope they will not blow away noncombatants in real action.

"That's the only thing we can do, really. When people are in the area we're
expecting them to identify them before they shoot," explained a trainer.
"It's not just spray - it's identify and then engage."

Army Gen. Mario Montoya, the commander of Colombia's southern region where
the U.S.-trained battalions will be based, rejected allegations by human
rights groups that some army units are fighting a dirty war against rebels.

"If we were as bloodthirsty as people say, the war would have been over by
now - we would have killed all the bad guys," Montoya declared.

The newly trained troops will join the other two counternarcotics
battalions in operations against coca plantations and drug labs, mostly in
Putumayo and Caqueta states, which together produce more than 60 percent of
Colombia's cocaine.

The U.S backing of Colombia's military, which has been fighting a 37-year
war against rebels, has some critics suspecting the assistance is more
geared at helping wipe out the rebellion instead of stemming drug trafficking.

Since the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - the biggest rebel group
- - earns millions of dollars by protecting and taxing drug crops, as do the
rival paramilitaries, the U.S.-trained troops will have wide clearance to
launch attacks.

A U.S. military official based in Colombia, speaking on condition of
customary anonymity, said the U.S.-trained troops can target any of the
thousands of rebels and paramilitary gunmen in Putumayo and Caqueta,
because he asserted they are there only to make money off the drug trade.

The anti-drug troops provide protection for low-flying fumigation planes
and seek out and destroy drug labs. The two battalions have destroyed
86,000 acres of coca and killed 52 "narcotraffickers" since December,
Montoya said. He did not give a breakdown on how many of the dead were
rebels and paramilitaries.

In the clashes, one officer, three non-commissioned officers and six
privates have been slain, Montoya said.

Under the $1.3 billion U.S. aid package, 16 Blackhawk and 25 Super Huey
helicopters will begin arriving in July for the counternarcotics battalions.

They will give the battalions far greater mobility and fire support, the
U.S. military official said.

"We'll be able to double the rate of success we're having now, and that's a
modest estimate," he predicted.