DRUG WAR NOW KILLS CIVILIANS

WHEN blame is assessed for the death of an American missionary and her
7-month-old baby, a hefty share must be laid on the United States.

It was our CIA surveillance plane that directed the Peruvian Air Force's
attention to the little Cessna with the big dove painted on the fuselage,
and suggested it might be carrying drugs. Sure, according to news reports,
members of the American surveillance crew objected when Peru proceeded to
shoot down the plane over the Amazon jungle. But it should have been no
surprise when that happened, and when it was discovered that missionaries,
not drug runners, were on board.

The United States, under the banner of the War on Drugs, has been helping
Peru and other countries intercept drug traffickers since the early 1990s.
We had to have known that the Peruvians had a policy of shooting down
``suspicious'' planes -- they've shot down dozens of them. They even shot
down a U.S. Air Force plane in 1992.

We had to have known that it was easy to call attention to the Baptist
missionaries' plane but almost impossible to stop the subsequent course of
events. We had to have known that confusion is inevitable when Peruvian Air
Force pilots use military frequencies to contact suspicious planes, while
the pilot of the missionaries' plane was calling Peruvian air traffic
controllers on a civilian frequency.

In fact, we did know, some years ago, that this could happen. The New York
Times reported Monday that the United States held off on providing tracking
and targeting information to Peru in the mid-1990s for fear of being held
responsible for civilian deaths. But then Congress passed a law absolving
the U.S. of liability in the downing of aircraft ``reasonably suspected''
of drug trafficking, if everyone involved had been careful to avoid
innocent loss of life.

Care seems to have been lacking in this case. Veronica Bowers and baby
Charity have become victims of an anti-drug effort that mistakenly uses
military means to solve a problem that cries out for more effective
measures. If we are going to help foreign governments shoot down airplanes
as part of their drug interdiction efforts, we bear some responsibility for
making sure that such extreme action only occurs after every precaution
against error has been taken.