NEW COMMITMENT TO COLOMBIA

The high-level U.S. delegation that traveled to Bogota this week carried a
message that Colombians have long wanted to hear. "We are committed to help
Colombians create a Colombia that is a peaceful, prosperous, drug-free and
terror-free democracy," said Undersecretary of State Marc Grossman.

Washington has already committed $1.3 billion to eradicate cocaine and
heroin production in the South American country but has been leery of
involvement in Colombia's four-decade-old civil war. The facts on the
ground, however, call for less restrictions on U.S. help to the beleaguered
democracy.

There is no way to stem the flow of narcotics to American streets from
Colombia's ruthless cartels, the major suppliers of illicit drugs, without
taking on the armed groups that protect them. The left-wing Revolutionary
Armed Forces of Colombia, known as the FARC, have financed their growing
challenge to the constitutional government with pay-offs from the drug
lords for guarding the areas where coca is grown and processed. The
right-wing Self-Defense Forces of Colombia is also in the pay of the
cartels. The Colombian army and the special police force that has been
spearheading the fight against the drug traffickers need and deserve U.S.
help to bring law and order back to the areas that have come under the
control of the cartels and their private armies.

The FARC and another, smaller left-wing guerrilla group, the National
Liberation Army (ELN), also pose a potential terrorist threat to U.S.
interests in Colombia. Both are linked to a terrorist network that extends
beyond Colombia. The arrest of three members of the Irish Republican Army,
who were training FARC guerrillas in bomb-making, and the death of another
IRA terrorist, who was killed in action with the ELN, revealed the presence
of foreign terrorists in Colombia. There have also been reports of meetings
between FARC guerrillas and officials of the anti-American, pro-Castro
government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

IRA bomb experts may have played a role in the sabotaging of the Cano-Limon
oil pipeline, which carries oil from oilfields in the east for Occidental
Petroleum of Los Angeles and other companies. The pipeline was bombed and
put out of action for 243 days last year. Of late, FARC guerrillas have set
out to destroy Colombia's infrastructure and thus weaken the economy.

The U.S. plan presented to Colombia President Andres Pastrana would provide
$98 million to equip and train the Colombian army to protect the pipeline,
finance the rebuilding of police stations destroyed by the guerrillas and
set up a program to combat kidnappings. Every year, thousands of ordinary
Colombians are seized as hostages for ransom by the guerrillas.

Additional aid to Colombia, which is waging war against narcotics
trafficking and terrorism, is justified but must not be unconditional.
Great care must be taken to ensure that the Colombian armed forces, which
have been accused of working with right-wing death squads, respect human
rights. Criticism of these new initiatives by some U.S. human rights
organizations is easily outweighed by the gratitude expressed by the
Colombian people, who want to see an end to guerrilla warfare and the
scourge of narcotics.