COLOMBIA'S SUFFERING RELIEVED, SOMEWHAT, BY U.S. MONEY

The residents of Bojaya, in the impoverished Colombian province of
Choco, know misery. The know of flooding for four months of each year,
electricity two to three hours every couple of days, and drinking
water obtainable only through rain collection.

Their one thing of value -- the town's location along the Atrato River
- -- landed them in the middle of a 10-year battle between the left-wing
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the country's
right-wing United Self-Defence Forces (AUC) as the groups vied for
control of an important transit zone for illegal drugs and weapons.

The town was barely on the Colombian government's radar screen until
May 2, 2002, the day of what became known as the Bojaya massacre. On
that day, the FARC launched a mortar attack against AUC forces seeking
cover in a churchyard. A shell landed directly on the church altar,
killing 119 innocent townspeople, many of them children, who had
sought refuge in the sanctuary.

Today, things are much different in Bojaya. Colombian military forces
patrol the Atrato and, with the full involvement of the locals, a new
town is being built on higher, drier land.

Money from the United States is paying for a health centre while
national and foreign aid has been directed to improving schools and
generating economic activity independent of the drug trade. That's
progress, but not the kind typically reported in Colombia's long war
against insurgents and drug trafficking.

The U.S. has pumped more than $4.5 billion into Colombia's
six-year-old anti-drug and pro-peace development strategy, the largest
amount of American aid outside of the Middle East.

Most of it has been directed to security. The results -- a drop in the
number of murders and kidnappings, and increases in the extradition of
drug kingpins, the eradication of coca crops and the number of
irregular combatants killed or demobilized -- have made a big splash
in Washington and given Colombian President Alvaro Uribe nearly
superhero status in Washington.

But not everyone in the U.S. capital is impressed, especially those
who have long criticized the military emphasis of U.S. aid to
Colombia. "If you spend a billion dollars and in return you get a ham
sandwich, it's better than nothing, but it's not what you paid for,"
said Tim Rieser, foreign policy aide to Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy, a
Democrat who recently travelled to Colombia and acknowledges security
advances in some parts of the country, is particularly frustrated that
not enough funds are directed to the social and economic development
projects he thinks are necessary for Plan Colombia to succeed.

Primarily targeting the aid at securing the country is a too "narrow
reading of security," said Mark Schneider, senior vice-president of
the International Crisis Group and an assistant administrator for
Latin America at the U.S. Agency for International Development during
former president Bill Clinton's administration.

"Whenever you throw the FARC out of an area, what you want to have is
a coherent rural development plan so people see immediate benefits."

Colombian officials agree. In fact, according to Carolina Barco,
Colombia's ambassador to the United States, officials meeting in
Bogota with a high-level U.S. delegation last month stressed the need
for U.S. assistance to continue in order for Colombia to consolidate
its progress on the battlefield. What's needed is "not only military
action but also social and economic investment" -- a replication of
the kind of assistance seen now in Bojaya.

Barco said that her government is planning to invest more than $1.6
billion over the next four years in development projects to help
maintain "territorial control" -- Colombia's way of framing security
gains as fully dependent on economic development.

Without such projects, the goals associated with the drug war -- such
as coca eradication and interdiction -- will not be sustainable, said
Barco. As part of that effort, she added, the government hopes to levy
a new tax on the wealthy and has launched an appeal for assistance
from other countries, particularly in Europe, where drug consumption
is growing faster than in the U.S.

Back in 1999, enormous effort went into defining a comprehensive
long-term strategy to help Colombia. It was evident then that one of
the most redeeming qualities of Plan Colombia was that it broadened
the understanding of Colombia's challenges beyond a problem of mere
drug trafficking.

Now, as U.S. and Colombian officials discuss the next phase of Plan
Colombia, it's important they recognize that more than narrow
successes on the battlefield are essential for the kind of progress
seen in Bojaya.