EU PLANS TO CHECK AERIAL DRUG-SPRAYING IN COLOMBIA

A group of European countries is proposing to introduce international
monitoring to resolve controversy over Colombia's programme of aerial
crop-spraying aimed at destroying illegal drug cultivation.

Mo Mowlam, the British minister with responsibility for drugs policy,
said on a visit to Colombia this week that Britain was supporting
plans to put a monitoring scheme in place.

Spraying of coca with herbicide is an important element of US-backed
anti-drugs policy in Colombia, and since December has been directed at
more than 30,000 hectares of the illegal crop, which is used to make
cocaine. However, the policy has sparked health fears among local
peasants and concern for the environment, as well as allegations that
farmers are suffering hardship because legal crops are also being destroyed.

Internationally backed verification, it is suggested, could enjoy more
credibility than checks conducted by the US or Colombian governments.
Ms Mowlam said verification of the spraying, under the auspices of the
UN and the Pan-American Health Organisation, would include checks on
what chemicals were being used.

A second stage of monitoring would entail on-the-ground scrutiny of
spraying results. "The aim is to make sure that information gets out,"
said Ms Mowlam. Britain would contribute Dollars 100,000 (Pounds
68,000) to the programme.

This week US officials defended their use of herbicide spraying, while
state governors from southern Colombia said the fumigation policy in
the region was causing hardship.

Speaking to drug-growing peasants in Putumayo, the focus of the
fumigation effort, Ms Mowlam said she hoped the European Union could
provide more aid.

"I am desperate to help you. But I do not want to promise what I can't
deliver," she told community representatives, who have pledged to tear
up coca crops in return for government assistance and a promise their
lands will not be sprayed with herbicide.

The EU pledged Euros 105m (Pounds 67m) last year for Colombia and
member countries have also pledged bilateral contributions.

Javier Solana, EU foreign policy chief, also visiting Colombia this
week, said the EU wanted to give "the finishing touches" to its aid
plans at a meeting planned for the end of April in Brussels. "It will
undoubtedly be a substantial amount of assistance," Mr Solana said.

Colombia's growing drug production and rising fears for its stability
have raised its profile as a foreign policy issue for Europe. However,
the EU last year damped Colombia's hopes of more than Dollars 1bn in
international aid, to accompany Dollars 1.3bn of US emergency aid.