ANTI-DRUG HERBICIDE KILLS FOOD CROPS, CRITIC SAYS

Colombia's national ombudsman has issued a stinging critique of a
U.S.-funded drug-crop eradication campaign, saying that
``indiscriminate'' herbicide spraying had wiped out food crops across
southern Colombia.

Human rights ombudsman Eduardo Cifuentes called for an immediate halt
to all counternarcotics operations involving aerial herbicide
spraying, saying that the U.S.-supplied technology being used was not
distinguishing between legal and illegal cultivation.

Although the ombudsman is a government appointee, his recommendations
are not binding and do not carry a government stamp of approval. His
independent study does, however, call into question the intelligence
used by the United States to target drug crops in a $1.3 billion U.S.
counternarcotics program in Colombia.