SETTLEMENT DUE FOR MISSIONARY

U.S. Should Pay Money, Create Safer Anti-Drug Flights

The West Michigan-based missionary whose plane was shot out of the Peruvian
sky deserves the compensation the U.S. government promised four long months
ago. U.S. Rep. Peter Hoekstra, R-Holland, is right to continue pushing for
the State Department to pay Jim Bowers the $8 million it agreed to in March.

Right, too, are Mr. Hoekstra's continued concerns about the U.S.- backed
program that killed Roni Bowers and the Bowers' infant daughter, Charity,
in April 2001. President Bush's administration appears ready to re-launch
the drug interdiction flights, suspended after the Bowers incident, despite
significant questions about whether there would be adequate safeguards to
prevent other tragedies.

Under Mr. Bush's new plan, authority for the interdiction program, which
had been run by the Central Intelligence Agency in cooperation with the
governments of Peru and Colombia, would be transferred to the State
Department. The United States would identify suspected drug running planes.
Peruvian and Colombian air force planes would shoot them down if the planes
failed to answer repeated calls to land.

This is very similar to the way the program ran last year when the Cessna
carrying the Bowers family was identified by CIA officials as a potential
drug-carrying aircraft. A Peruvian fighter jet shot it out of the sky as
CIA operatives frantically objected over the radio. Subsequent
investigations showed a language barrier between the CIA and Peruvian
participants. In addition, the Peruvians failed to follow basic safeguards
set in place to keep innocent people from being killed.

The restructured program should include careful training, adequate language
skills and a more active role for U.S. participants -- especially the
ability by State Department operatives to veto any shoot-down decision. By
every indication, such a veto power could have saved the Bowers family.

Peru's government has purchased a new plane for the Baptist mission group
that sponsored the Bowers family, covered funeral costs and paid medical
expenses for injured pilot Kevin Donaldson. The U.S. government has yet to
pay any money for its role in the shoot-down.

The State Department, which agreed to a settlement in March after much
negotiation, has dragged its feet and insisted -- dubiously -- that
Congress must approve the funds. The $8 million the department has promised
Mr. Bowers can't begin to compensate for the tragedy suffered by him and
his son, Cory, who also survived the accident. But stalling payment has
only added to their hardship.

There is evidence the drug interdiction program has slowed the cocaine
trade. Between 1995, when the program began, and last year when it was
suspended, the Peruvian air force had shot down or forced down 38 planes
and seized another dozen on the ground.

Drug flights had virtually ceased as criminals took to the less efficient
ground and rivers to move cocaine, U.S. officials say. Without the program,
those same officials say drug trafficking has increased again.

An effective drug-fighting strategy will include education, treatment,
criminal prosecutions and efforts to stop trafficking at its source. The
simple goal should be to protect citizens and society against the many
ravages of drugs, including ruined lives and rampant crime.

Some risks will have to be taken, but protecting innocents should be a
fundamental priority. Before the anti-drug flights resume, Mr. Hoekstra and
U.S. Sens. Carl Levin, D-Detroit, and Debbie Stabenow, D- Lansing, should
make sure that's the case.