PERU ANTI-DRUG PATROL REASSESSED AFTER DOWNING OF U.S. PLANE

LIMA, Peru -- The downing by Peru of a missionary aircraft from the United
States has dealt a severe blow to the two countries' efforts to halt drug
shipments between Peru's coca fields and the trafficking cartels in Colombia.

Peru's policy of forcing down suspected trafficking planes since the early
1990's has been praised by Washington as a principal reason why the
cultivation of coca plants -- the raw material from which cocaine is made
- -- has been reduced by two-thirds in Peru since 1995.

In those six years, 30 drug trafficking planes were shot down by Peruvian
pilots and scores more were forced to land -- though before they went down,
the drug traffickers usually dumped the drugs, which were found later.

The aggressive air policy has frightened most local pilots to stop their
smuggling activities, American and Peruvian officials say. That in turn,
they say, has interrupted local coca leaf markets and encouraged thousands
of coca-growing peasants to try to cultivate other crops like cocoa and
coffee, with economic help from the United States.

But American officials have long acknowledged that the program has its risks.

The Clinton administration suspended intelligence gathering flights over
Peru and Colombia for a month in 1994 because of concerns that American
officials could face criminal liability in accidents like the one last
Friday that killed an American missionary and her newly adopted infant
daughter.

A Peruvian Air Force A-37 fighter jet attacked their pontoon plane,
mistaking it for a drug flight. Friends of three American survivors said
they had been told that the Peruvian jet then strafed the survivors after
they crash-landed on an Amazon River tributary in the jungle near the
Brazilian border.

Relatives of the survivors have also said they were told that the Peruvian
Air Force did not make radio contact with the missionaries' aircraft before
shooting.

In Washington today, American officials stopped short of apportioning blame
for what the White House called an "isolated incident." The Americans said
they did not want to halt Lima's cooperation with a joint investigation.

But one senior Bush administration official went so far as to say, "It does
appear that the Peruvians, had they followed the proper procedures, could
have averted this tragedy."

Apparent errors of command and control, which occurred despite the presence
of an American surveillance flight in the area, have forced both
governments to reconsider their enforcement strategies.

"The interdiction program has been suspended temporarily, but that could be
a very long time, depending on the investigation," said a State Department
official. "If you were to terminate the program forever, you would remove
one of the main roadblocks to drug cultivation in Peru."

Rear Adm. Luis Augusto Galvez Figari, spokesman for Peru's Defense
Ministry, called the incident "a big break for the traffickers." Without
flight interdiction, he said, "they will be able to move much more freely."
"This program has been a brake on them," he said, "since unfortunately
drugs pour through our jungles."

American and Peruvian officials said that they were planning a joint
investigation and that investigators from the State Department, the
American military and the C.I.A. would arrive in Lima in the next few days.
"Everyone who has responsibility will be at the table, and we'll take the
necessary actions," a State Department official said.

Admiral Galvez Figari said that during the weekend, Peruvian investigators
questioned a Peruvian officer who was stationed on the American
surveillance plane, plus the Peruvian pilot of the fighter jet, as well as
"the total line of command that was involved in the incident."

He said investigators would try to determine if proper procedures had been
followed, and who was responsible for any errors.

At a briefing today, the State Department spokesman, Richard Boucher, said
that the crew aboard the American surveillance aircraft sought to warn off
the Peruvians. "And our folks did raise questions and were trying to hold
the Peruvians back from action," he said. "But, again, all these things
will be looked at very thoroughly so that we and the Peruvians both
understand what happened."

American and Peruvian officials said American surveillance planes
customarily alert the Peruvian Air Force when their pilots spotted any
flights that appeared potentially suspicious. But the Americans said they
left it to Peruvian military and aeronautic authorities on the ground to
check flight plans and determine if a particular flight was actually
surreptitious.

The two governments have established stringent rules of engagement before a
plane can be shot down. The Peruvian authorities are supposed to try to
make radio contact with the plane from the ground and air.

Once a pursuing air force aircraft fails to make radio contact, it is
required to make visual contact with the unidentified plane by using signal
blinkers and then by tipping its wings in a maneuver that pilots recognize
as meaning that a landing is being ordered. Should the pilot neglect to
respond, the air force pilot is then supposed to fire warning shots. If
that does not force the plane to land, the pilot is then authorized to
shoot down the unidentified aircraft.

Admiral Galvez Figari said his ministry was not ready to retract a Peruvian
military statement issued over the weekend that said the American pilot had
not filed a proper flight plan or responded to radio contact by the air
force, but he suggested that a more detailed assessment would be made
public soon.

American officials have contradicted much of the original Peruvian military
account, saying the crew members of the American surveillance plane, a
Cessna Citation jet owned by the United States Air Force, had raised
numerous objections as they watched the Peruvian jet attack the
missionaries' aircraft.

The officials said the Peruvian officer on board the tracking plane had
called in the intercepting A-37 attack jet and tried several times to make
radio contact with the unidentified aircraft on several frequencies. But
they said the Peruvian Air Force had rushed through the rules of
engagement, and launched their attack precipitously.

The American survivors of the incident said that they had communicated with
Peruvian ground control during the flight and attack, and that no warning
shots had been fired.

Veronica Bowers, 35, and her 7-month-old daughter, Charity, were killed.
Ms. Bowers's husband, James Bowers, 37, a missionary of the Association of
Baptists for World Evangelism, their 6-year-old son, Cory, and Kevin
Donaldson, 42, the pilot, survived.