TIME TO RETHINK ANTI-DRUG STRATEGY

While fighting drugs is the right thing to do, it should not come at the
expense of innocent lives. This is what happened last Friday when a
Peruvian fighter jet aided by U.S. surveillance shot at a small plane
carrying American missionaries over the Amazon jungle. A mother and baby
were killed.

Blame for this tragedy is still being sorted out. But one thing is clear.
American public opinion will turn against the U.S. war on drugs in Latin
America if innocent people become casualties.

This is reason for the United States to rethink its strategy on fighting
drug production and smuggling in Latin America. Critics say this strategy
is too heavy on the military side, ignoring the social consequences. If the
military is to continue playing a major role in these efforts, safeguards
to protect innocent people must be strictly enforced.

Washington should review an agreement with Peru on drug interdiction. In
the past decade, former President Alberto Fujimori crippled his country's
cocaine production -- although it moved into neighboring Colombia. At one
point, the Clinton administration became concerned that Fujimori had a
shoot-first-ask-questions-later interdiction policy. In May 1994, the White
House stopped helping the Peruvian government with anti-drug radar tracking
systems and aerial surveillance. Former President Bill Clinton, however,
reinstated the program later that year. He determined Peru had the
safeguards to prevent accidental shootdowns.

Seven years later, these safeguards are not so apparent. President Bush has
now suspended surveillance cooperation with Peru. He should be in no rush
to resume this assistance until Washington is sure Peru is following
protocol. The rules say that every attempt should be made to get a
suspicious or unauthorized aircraft to land -- including firing warning
shots -- before knocking it out of the sky.

Peru's Fujimori is gone. He left the country in disgrace last year after a
fraudulent election and a scandal involving his spy chief, Vladimiro
Montesinos, who is now a fugitive from justice. But Fujimori's aggressive
drug interdiction policies appear to be in place, and they are a sore point
in the war on drugs.

Until these policies change and the proper safeguards are in place,
Washington should not be Peru's drug interdiction partner.

Bush also has called for an investigation into the shootdown, which should
resolve conflicting accounts of how the tragedy occurred. The State
Department has confirmed that a U.S. surveillance plane helped track the
missionary flight before it was attacked. A department spokesman said that
CIA personnel on the radar plane tried to prevent the shootdown, asking the
Peruvian military to make an attempt to get the aircraft to land. The
Peruvian government, however, has insisted that it followed proper
procedure when it fired at the Cessna 185, which was carrying Baptist
missionaries.

That action resulted in the death of Veronica "Roni" Bowers and her
7-month-old baby, Charity, who were fatally shot. The war on drugs doesn't
need any more innocent victims like them.