HELICOPTER SALES COME UNDER FIRE

OTTAWA, Canada -- Former Canadian Forces choppers are being used by the
repressive Colombian military against their own people - and the Liberal
government doesn't seem to care, human rights activists charged yesterday.

It's all because of a loophole in Canadian trade law that allowed the
Defence Department to sell 40 helicopters to the U.S. State Department for
$20 million two years ago.

The Americans then handed 33 of them over to the Colombian Army.

Officially the American-made 1970's vintage Huey choppers, which were
refurbished, are being used in the war against Colombian drug lords.

But Amnesty International and the Roman Catholic Church say the Colombian
army doesn't always distinguish between the drug war and its battle against
anti-government rebels.

"Is Canada to sell its good name as a peace-making nation to be an
accomplice in the war in Colombia?" asked Archbishop Roger Ebacher of the
Gatineau-Hull diocese.

Ebacher argued that the Defence Department would never have been allowed to
sell the choppers directly to the Colombian army because of a Canadian
policy that bars the sale of military equipment to known human rights
violators.

Junior foreign minister and Edmonton MP David Kilgour rejected plugging the
loophole, adding that Canada could have no say over what the Americans do
with the helicopters once they are sold.

"We do not give export permits to the government of the United States,"
Kilgour said.