U.S. UNDAUNTED BY DRUG WAR SETBACKS

WASHINGTON (AP) -- There were smiles around the State Department a while
back when the latest CIA estimates on coca production in Colombia were
disclosed. It was not a production drop that generated the upbeat mood,
only a slowdown in the rate of increase.

Instead of the customary 20-plus percent jump in production, the coca crop
was up by a "mere" 11 percent, the result of an eradication effort that,
however ambitious, failed to keep pace with new coca plantings.

Nobody ever said the war on drugs would be easy. Officials have cautioned
that it may be 2005 before the sharp acceleration in U.S. counternarcotics
assistance to Colombia over the past year produces significant results.

One of the bright spots on the horizon has been a CIA-sponsored program
under which U.S. surveillance planes track suspected drug flights, then
alert the Peruvian or Colombian air force, as appropriate. Under the rules
of engagement, the suspect flight can be shot down by host country fighters
if certain conditions are met.

Over past six years, 30 drug flights over Peru have been shot down, leaving
narcotraffickers discouraged and contributing to a two-thirds decline in
coca production in that country. Finding Peru inhospitable, many
traffickers moved next door to Colombia.

Now even the surveillance program has fallen on hard times, at least over
the short term. It has been shelved in the aftermath of the tragic downing
Friday of an American missionary flight that Peruvian authorities, notified
by the CIA's airborne sleuths, mistook for a drug flight. A U.S. missionary
and her daughter were killed.

U.S. and Peruvian officials will try to sort out what happened and then
resume the flights after a hiatus, according to current estimates, of a few
weeks, during which the two sides will discuss measures to ensure there is
no repetition of the incident.

That tragedy will quickly fade from public consciousness but strong doubts
about the wisdom of the overall U.S. drug campaign are expected to linger.

There are complaints that drug crop eradication in Colombia and elsewhere
in the Andes has produced little effect on the price or availability of
cocaine in the United States, and that chemical and manual eradication
programs have pushed growers deeper into the jungle where they level virgin
forests to grow their crops.

"Our national and international drug control strategy is not working," a
coalition of 39 religious and other groups said in a letter to President
Bush in February.

Meanwhile, the civil war in Colombia appears to be worsening. Rightist
paramilitary units, aided by chain saws, hammers, stones and machetes, have
been massacring innocent villagers in remote areas lately.

"We have returned to the most barbaric era," Colombian Ombudsman Eduardo
Cifuentes said after a massacre in the town of Naya left dozens dead.

The Bush administration is calling for patience, pointing out that helping
Colombians eradicate their drug crop has a direct impact on Colombian
guerrillas of the left and the right because of their reliance on drug
money for their operations.

And officials say the anti-drug fight is just beginning. Deliveries of U.S.
Black Hawk helicopters for Colombia's anti-narcotics battalions and its
national police will begin later this year. The two security services also
are on tap to receive 34 Huey-2s in the coming months. Also in the works is
a shipment of five additional spray planes for police use.

Recognizing that Colombia's problems extend well beyond narcotrafficking
and civil war, the United States also is assisting in a number of other
areas, especially law enforcement, where a U.S. interagency effort is
involved in 12 project areas.

In contrast to other issues, Bush seems to have no problem in picking up on
Colombia policy where President Clinton left it. He has said the U.S. goal
is to help the Colombian government "protect its people, fight the drug
trade, halt the momentum of the guerrillas and bring about a sensible and
peaceful resolution" to Colombia's long-running civil war.