PERU RELIED ON U.S. IN WAR ON DRUGS

LIMA, Peru (AP) -- For much of the last decade, the U.S. military, using
sophisticated radar tracking systems and aerial surveillance, has assisted
Peru in intercepting suspected drug planes.

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

That's exactly what happened Friday when a Peruvian A-37B Dragonfly attack
plane downed a single-engine float plane carrying three missionaries and
two of their children. A woman and her 7-month-old daughter were killed.

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

Under the current agreement, Peru cannot use U.S. data to attack a plane
unless it is flying without a flight plan in a no-fly zone. The rules of
engagement say Peruvian fighters must try to make radio contact and
visually signal a suspect aircraft to land for inspection before opening fire.

If the pilot balks, warning shots must be fired before a high-ranking
Peruvian air force officer can give a "kill order."

At least 25 drug smuggling craft have been downed since 1994, with the most
recent occurring last July. That was the first such shoot-down since 1997
in Peru's central jungle region, Peru military officials said at the time.

Analysts say the policy was for a time extremely effective.

Peru has been a key South American ally in the United States' war on drug
trafficking since the early 1990s. U.S. officials have hailed Peru's coca
eradication efforts as a success.

Once the world's leading producer of coca leaf, the raw material used to
make cocaine, Peru's coca production fell in 2000 for the fifth consecutive
year, to a total of 84,500 acres, CIA data shows.

The country's coca cultivation reached 319,000 in 1992 but began to decline
after then-President Alberto Fujimori ordered his military to shoot down
suspected drug planes, employing the so-called "air bridge" policy.

But in recent years, drug smugglers have found alternate routes over land
and by river to bring semi-refined coca into Colombia and Brazil for
processing and distribution, mostly to the United States and Europe.