MOWLAM STEPS UP WAR AGAINST NARCO-GUERRILLAS

BOGOTA -- Two British generals and the former head of security at the
Northern Ireland Office have been sent to help train Colombian government
forces in the past six months as Britain becomes increasingly involved in
combating drugs trafficking and bolstering Colombia's precarious peace process.

Convinced of the need to commit more resources to resolving the civil war
which has been raging for the past 37 years, the Cabinet Office minister,
Mo Mowlam, has travelled to Bogota three times since last June. She is
trying to promote alternative crops to the coca bushes from which cocaine
is refined.

The former Northern Ireland Secretary, who is now in charge of the
government's drugs programme, has recently visited the cocaine-producing
state of Putumayo on the lawless Ecuadorian border. After the US, Britain
is the biggest investor in Colombia.

Three-quarters of the cocaine and much of the heroin smuggled into Europe
comes from Colombia. The leftwing rebels and militias supporting the
government both fund their campaigns by charging drugs cartels war-taxes"
for protecting narcotics plantations.

As well as advising the Colombian army, Britain has made pounds 100,000
available to the UN drug control programme to monitor the effects of
chemical defoliant sprayed on coca plants. Fields of plantain, cassava and
maize have been inadvertently destroyed by herbicides.

The US is spending Dollars 1.3bn ( pounds 900m) to support Plan Colombia, a
strategy which the President Andres Pastrana believes will devastate the
drugs trade and promote peace.

President Bill Clinton approved the expenditure last year, despite concern
about the Colombian army's human rights record and warnings that the aid
- -which, among other things, will pay for 60 combat helicopters - will add
to the violence.

Britain too believes that the Colombian army needs help, chiefly advice on
preventing collusion between soldiers and rightwing paramilitaries.

Ms Mowlam revealed the extent of British involvement in Colombia last week.
General Sir Roger Wheeler, former chief of the general staff of the British
army, General Sir Michael Rose, former UN commander in Bosnia, and the
former head of security in Northern Ireland John Steele, have been sent out
since last November.

They talked to the (Colombian) police and army about what they can do to
make them more effective,' Ms Mowlam said. You couldn't tackle drugs
without offering assistance with the peace talks and in (reducing)
violence. You have to strengthen the military and police, but also teach
them human rights. You are not going to get progress unless you have a
military that can take on the (rebels) and the paramilitaries.'

Ms Mowlam has some problems' with US crop-spraying. Dousing smallholders'
fields in chemicals could alienate farmers, she warned. Herbicides should
be used to destroy only large coca-growing operations; campesinos - peasant
farmers - should be encouraged to grow different crops.

Last June the British ambassador, Jeremy Thorp, flew to an enclave
controlled by the Revolutionary Armed forces of Colombia (Farc) to discuss
human rights and alternatives to drug production. The embassy has been
working with a group called Women Waging Peace to organise a visit by women
involved in the Northern Irish peace talks.

While the US is channelling aid to the Colombian army, the EU, which has
pledged Dollars 100m ( pounds 70m), is directing its efforts towards
civilian reforms.

Interviewed by the Guardian, Ms Mowlam agreed that the west had to reduce
the demand for illegal drugs, but declined to contemplate a future of
either legalisation or decriminalisation. We are trying to reduce demand;
we are beginning to make progress,' she insisted.

Amnesty International has opposed Plan Colombia, saying there is conclusive
evidence that paramilitary groups continue to operate with tacit or active
support of the Colombian armed forces'.

It added: Evidence has emerged that Colombian army personnel, trained by US
special forces, have been implicated by action or omission in serious human
rights violations, including the massacre of civilians.'