PERU INTERDICTION EFFORTS LAUDED

Washington-The Bush administration yesterday praised as a success a
6-year-old CIA-run program to aid Peru in intercepting airborne drug
smugglers, despite the death last week of an American missionary and her
infant daughter when their small plane was shot down by the Peruvian air force.

"This has been a good program to help win the war on drugs," said White
House spokesman Ari Fleischer. "Drug trafficking in Peru has dropped
markedly since the program began. So it's a question of balancing...Any
time a life is lost, it's a tragedy. Also, in fighting the war against
drugs, many lives have been saved." The comments of Fleischer and State
Department spokesman Richard Boucher indicated the administration
eventually will resume the drug interdiction missions, which were suspended
after the deaths of Veronica and Charity Bowers on Friday.

But the spokesmen also indicated that won't happen until a joint
U.S.-Peruvian investigation clarifies how a plane carrying missionaries was
mistaken for drug smugglers and until new mechanisms have been developed to
avoid a repetition.

"There is a desire to resume it, but not at the expense of something like
this," said one administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"So we will take a long, hard look at it and do what needs to be done to
fix it." Fleischer gingerly implied, but did not state explicitly, that the
Peruvian military was at fault for the tragedy, saying that "an action was
taken...not in compliance with the procedures laid out." When asked if U.S.
personnel involved had followed proper procedures, Fleischer said,
"According to the information we've received so far, that is yes." As
tentative as it was, Fleischer's comment drew a sharp rejoinder from the
Peruvian miliary.

"The only thing I can tell you is that the air force followed the
procedures," said a spokesman, Cmdr. Rommel Roca, according to The
Associated Press. Reuters quoted an unnamed Peruvian air force official as
saying his service followed all procedures "to the letter." The plane
carrying the missionaries was shot down by a Peruvian fighter after a U.S.
government aircraft manned by CIA contract employees identified it as a
possible drug smuggler, U.S. officials said. The Americans urged the
Peruvians to hold off on any action until a thorough check could be run on
the plane, the U.S. officials said, but the Peruvians ignored that advice
and ordered a fighter to intercept it.

Peruvian authorities asserted that the plane, operated by the Association
of Baptists for World Evangelism, did not respond to radioed requests to
identify itself and had not filed a flight plan.

The Baptists' organization disputed both those assertions and posted on its
Web site (www.abwe.org) a facsimile of a document in Spanish that appeared
to be the flight plan for the aircraft and trip in question. The Baptists
said that the pilot of the plane, Kevin Donaldson, had tried repeatedly to
radio the Peruvian fighter, but that the two planes apparently were using
different frequencies.

"All regulations were followed, such as a flight plan, remaining in
Peruvian air space and maintaining contact with the flight towers," said E.C.

Haskell, the Baptist group's director of mission relations, in a statement.

The program under which the CIA has served as spotter for the Peruvian
military began in 1995. According to administration officials, more than 30
planes suspected of drug smuggling have been shot or forced down since the
program began, and no "innocent" people had been killed or injured until
Friday's incident.

Bowers, 35, her husband, Jim Bowers, their 6-year-old son Cory and
7-month-old daughter Charity were returning to Iquitos, Peru, after a trip
to the Peru-Brazil border to obtain a visa for Charity, according to Haskell.

Veronica and Charity Bowers apparently were killed when their plane was
fired on by the intercepting Peruvian jet. Donaldson was hit in the leg but
was able to make an emergency landing on the Amazon River. Jim and Cory
Bowers were uninjured.

In a statement posted yesterday on the group's Web site, Jim Bowers said he
tentatively planned to bury his wife and daughter on Friday in their home
town of Muskegon, Mich. He said he would speak publicly at the funeral, but
not before.

"I would like to thank all of you who have expressed sympathy for Cory and
me and for the great way the media has depicted my wife's dedication to her
ministry and her love for the Peruvian people," he said in the statement.
"We are also thankful for a good night's rest, the first in several days.
We are doing very well under the circumstances."