Peruvians Worry That U.S. Drug Support Suspension Will Boost Traffickers

The downing of an American missionary plane and President Bush's subsequent
decision to suspend U.S.-backed anti-drug flights has led Peruvians to fear
drug traffickers will return to their skies soon.

The program, in which Peruvian pilots using information supplied by U.S.
radars and surveillance planes force down suspected drug flights, helped
Peru reduce cultivation of coca by almost three-quarters since 1992,
knocking it from the spot as the world's top producer. Coca is used to make
cocaine.

But the much-praised system took a blow on Friday, when a Peruvian jet
mistook a plane carrying U.S. missionaries for a drug flight and shot it
down over the Amazon River, killing a missionary and her 7-month-old daughter.

Peruvian and U.S. authorities said on Tuesday they would conduct a joint
investigation on the cause and that the resumption of drug interdiction
flights would depend on its findings.

"This decision clearly is a bump in the road in the drug war," said Rear
Adm. Luis Augusto Galvez, an official with Peru's defense ministry. "But we
consider this suspension in interdiction flights very temporary, hopefully
we can work this out quickly with a minimal impact, because drug
traffickers are aware of what has happened and should be preparing to
resume their flights."

The U.S. Embassy said an American delegation would be arriving in Peru
soon, but the date and its makeup were not yet set.

Key to the affect on Peru's drug war is the length of time the flights are
suspended, Peruvian military officials and drug experts said.

"If we're only talking about a temporary suspension while they investigate
I don't think that would cause the drug traffickers to change their
methods," said Elaine Ford, a narcotics expert with the Andean Jurists
Commission, a Peruvian legal rights group.

Following a decision in the early 1990s by then-President Alberto Fujimori
to start shooting down suspected drug flights to block the so-called
"air-bridge" from Peru to Colombia, Peru's drug traffickers began smuggling
drugs out on rivers or by sea from Peru's ports.

"Now we're talking about 70-80 percent of drug trafficking going through
the ports, by sea," with air transport minimal, said Roger Rumrrill, a
Peruvian expert on the drug trade.

Given that most of the drug trafficking moves through Peru's Pacific coast
ports, shifting operations back to the jungle for air shipments would not
be feasible or profitable in the short term, he added.

That economic reality has meant very few publicly reported shoot-downs of a
drug smuggling plane in recent years. Friday's shoot-down was only the
second reported since 1997. Since 1995, 30 drug trafficking planes were
shot down by Peruvian pilots, Peruvian officials say.

Peruvian coca had supplied Colombia's Medellin and Cali drug cartels during
the 1980s, with much of the cocaine going to the United States.

The U.S. government began supporting the shoot-down policy in the early
1990s by using sophisticated radar tracking systems and aerial surveillance
to provide data without actually taking part in the shoot-downs.

But the United States briefly suspended the support in May 1994 out of
concern that U.S. officials could be held liable if Peru shot down the
wrong aircraft.

Former President Clinton resumed the program in December 1994, after
determining that Peru's air force had adequate safeguards to prevent
accidental shootings.

The bodies of missionary Veronica "Roni" Bowers, 35, and her adopted
daughter, Charity, were returned to the United States on Tuesday. Bowers'
husband, Jim, and the couple's 6-year-old son, Cory, survived Friday's crash.