DRUG WAR DEEMED A FAILURE

Colombian Leader Calls For Review; He'll Meet With Powell Next Week

BOGOTA, Colombia - President Andres Pastrana, one of Washington's closest
allies in the global war on drugs, called Thursday for a review of that
struggle, saying it has produced few victories.

"The conclusions are not good," Mr. Pastrana said in a rare talk with
foreign journalists ahead of next week's visit by Secretary of State Colin
Powell. "The conclusions are that drugs are still the first-or
second-biggest business of mankind."

In the wide-ranging discussion in the presidential palace, Mr. Pastrana
said he still hopes for a negotiated end to Colombia's civil war. He also
said the United States should re-establish intelligence-sharing with
Colombia's air force about suspected drug flights, and urged President Bush
to help organize an international narcotics conference.

"Clearly, we must also make an evaluation - and not only of the policies of
fumigation and interdiction," Mr. Pastrana said.

He described a global narcotics industry worth $500 billion and said drug
lords are seeking out new markets in Europe and the former Soviet Union.

Drug use is on the rise in the United States, Mr. Pastrana said. However,
the White House says the overall number of drug users has dropped.

Washington suspended the practice of helping Colombia and Peru track down
drug-smuggling flights, using U.S. radar and surveillance planes, after the
accidental shootdown of a U.S. missionary plane over the Peruvian Amazon in
April.

Mr. Pastrana said the suspension "has allowed a lot of drugs to pass over
our territory because there is no control of our air space."

He urged a resumption, saying: "I think we can truly hit the heart of the
business through interdiction, and not simply through fumigation."

The fumigation of drug plants by U.S.-provided crop-dusters is the linchpin
of Washington's $1.3 billion counternarcotics policy in Colombia. The
spraying has been criticized amid allegations it endangers health and the
environment, and that it hurts peasant farmers who grow coca.

Mr. Pastrana said the United States and Europe should stem the laundering
of drug money and control the export of chemicals used in Colombia to
process cocaine.