KILLERS ON PROBATION

In Colombia, Situation Goes From Bad To Worse

The United States has poured $3 billion of aid into Colombia in recent
years to help it confront armed rebellions and curb drug trafficking by
both left-and right-wing groups. But progress has been meager. Negotiations
between the government and right-wing paramilitary groups, who have become
at least as murderous as the nation's Marxist rebels, led to an accord
calling for paramilitaries to disarm and surrender. But it looks more like
a surrender to killers than a just agreement.

The paramilitary groups, created to protect landholders, have become a
Frankenstein's monster, killing anyone even suspected of supporting FARC,
the Marxist rebels who have fought the government for 40 years. And now,
under a law just enacted, right-wing paramilitary leaders will be immune
from extradition to the United States. Nor will they face more than short
prison terms for their crimes, or be punished for failure to surrender
stolen assets or ensure that armed fighters turn in their weapons.

Despite a massive, U.S.-funded program of spraying coca and poppy fields
with pesticides, production and transport of narcotics continues at
previous levels, supplying about 90 percent of the cocaine and 50 percent
of the heroin in this country.

The new law may do little if anything to change that. It stops just short
of granting amnesty to those responsible for thousands of killings. It's
not even certain that those required to surrender and give up their weapons
will do so. Successive Colombian governments have been unable, or in some
cases unwilling, to take on groups that have cowed more than one president
into backing away from an all-out assault. Now, President Alvaro Uribe, who
initially took a tough line against rebels, seems to have extended that
tradition.

Some in Congress are angry and justifiably so. The Senate Appropriations
Committee has threatened to withhold the estimated $160 million cost of the
Colombian accord. That leaves the Bush administration in the awkward
position of either appearing to condone Uribe's capitulation or to use its
leverage to compel it to take strong action.

Based on past experience, what seems most likely is that Colombia will
continue to be under siege both by Marxist rebels and those who once seemed
to be on the government's side but are now a major barrier to peace. Given
the failure of U.S. aid to curb the flow of drugs into this country, how
long should Americans be expected to underwrite amnesty for killers? And
will President Bush break his silence by explaining what he intends to do
about what is becoming an intolerable situation?