THE DRUG WAR'S COLLATERAL DAMAGE

U.S. Must Back Away From Unconscionable Policy That Allows Downing Of
Civilian Flights

The circumstances surrounding the drug war deaths of an American
missionary and her 7-month-old daughter in Peru are an outrage. The fact
that not a single high-profile leader in Washington has had the guts to
forcefully talk sense on this tragedy only compounds an obvious wrong.

A U.S. delegation is expected to meet with Peruvian officials today to
discuss the deaths of Veronica Bowers and her daughter. They were killed
April 20 when a Peruvian military jet in contact with a U.S.
surveillance flight shot their Cessna out of the sky, mistakenly
believing the plane was on a drug run. The Associated Press reports the
talks will focus "on ways to guard against a similar tragedy in the
future."

Meantime, four senators on the Foreign Relations Committee sent a letter
to Secretary of State Colin Powell asking that the discussions in Peru
begin quickly so the United States can "take all necessary steps to make
certain that such a tragedy does not happen again."

This might be funny if it weren't so sick.

There's a very simple way to make sure this incident is never repeated.
End the unconscionable U.S.-Peruvian policy of downing suspected drug
smuggling planes. Now. Immediately. Never to be considered again.

Do it not only because the "collateral damage" of this drug war tactic
- -- and many others -- is innocent civilians, but because the policy is
morally wrong and barbaric. True, the United States never signed a U.N.
provision adopted by 102 countries that made shooting down a civilian
aircraft a violation of international law. But as The Washington Post
reports, when the Soviet Union blew up a Korean Air Lines jumbo jet in
1984, U.S. officials "argued vociferously that there was never any
justification for firing on a civilian plane."

The drug war, however, has triggered the suspension of common sense when
it comes to what is acceptable behavior by the authorities. And in 1994
the Clinton administration came out in support of efforts by Peru and
Colombia to control the drug trade by tracking and even shooting down
suspected drug-smuggling flights.

"Many of us thought, and still think, that countenancing the Peruvian
and Colombian shoot-down policies was a terrible mistake and created an
awful precedent," Jeffrey N. Shane, a lawyer who was assistant secretary
for policy and international affairs at the Transportation Department in
the first Bush administration, told the Post.

He's right. And it's time for somebody in Congress to step forward and
admit that this drug war tactic isn't worth it and demand that the
president reverse this approach -- and that he withhold aid to Peru and
Colombia if they refuse to go along.