CANADIAN HELICOPTERS USED IN COLOMBIA'S 'DIRTY WAR'

OTTAWA, Canada -- A batch of surplus Canadian Forces helicopters, sold to
the United States, ended up with the Colombian military, which has been
accused of massacres and human rights abuses, critics said Tuesday.

Opposition critics and Amnesty International called on the federal
government to set up rules about the end use of military equipment sold to
the United States - as it has with other countries.

Thirty-three of 40 Twin Huey choppers sold to the U.S. State Department
from 1998 to 2000 were eventually refurbished and shipped to South America
as part of Plan Colombia, Amnesty said.

Plan Colombia is an American-sponsored program aimed at quelling the
country's rebellion and eliminating the cocaine trade.

''I believe that Canadians would be appalled to know that our government
has been complicit in sending helicopters that ultimately are a part of the
military component of Plan Colombia,'' said MP Svend Robinson of the NDP.

The government must have been willfully blind not to know that the choppers
would be passed on to Colombia, he said.

Keith Rimstad of Amnesty International said the transfer exposes a loophole
in Canada's export laws. He and Robinson called on the government to bring
in rules limiting the end use of military equipment sold to the U.S. David
Kilgour, secretary of state for Latin America, didn't respond to the calls
for an end-use agreement. Rather, he said the government has never given
permission for exports of helicopters to Colombia.

The helicopters, which Canada bought from the United States in the 1970s,
were used as tactical troop transports and as light cargo carriers until
they were replaced by the Griffons in the 1990s.

Rimstad said they have been re-equipped as gunships and are used by three
anti-narcotics battalions of the Colombian army.

The Colombian army and its paramilitary allies have been blamed for
massacres in a ''dirty war'' against rebels and drug traffickers.