CONFRONTING COLOMBIA

Ask your friends why our country is involved in Colombia's four-decade
civil war and you'll discover that most people aren't really sure.

Now, one year after the U.S. government launched its military engagement in
Colombia, Congress must answer that question.

This week, the House will debate the Andean Regional Initiative, a $676
million appropriation that would replenish the $1.3 billion Congress
allocated for "Plan Colombia" in June 2000.

Critics of Plan Colombia have multiplied quickly during the past year. The
situation in the Andean region, they note, has only worsened. In
anticipation of U.S. military involvement, guerrilla forces moved deeper
into the jungle and violence and drug trafficking have spilled into nearby
countries.

Violations of human rights have intensified. A new investigation by the
Center for Public Integrity reveals that U.S. anti-drug funds have been
"funneled through corrupt military, paramilitary and intelligence
organizations and end up violating basic human rights."

In addition, paramilitary forces have escalated their military attacks
against villages and guerrilla forces have increased their kidnappings and
murders. All this, and still coca production has increased in neighboring
nations.

Aerial fumigation from helicopters has also left many peasants with health
problems and contaminated their land so that it cannot sustain edible
crops. Six governors from southern provinces, in fact, recently signed a
letter to President Andres Pastrana, demanding that aerial fumigation be
stopped. Thirty-five thousand indigenous and peasant locals have just
threatened to blockade the Pan American Highway if the fumigation is
resumed in their region. Human rights and environment groups in the United
States and Colombia, including the World Wildlife Fund and the American
Bird Conservancy, have added their voices to the opposition to aerial
fumigation.

Some critics even want the United States to admit that this is not a war
against drugs, but against peasant insurgents. A recent Rand report argues
that the United States should drop its phony "counternarcotics" talk and
admit that it is legitimately engaged in helping the Colombia government
defeat left-wing guerrilla groups.

In response to so many criticisms, a number of legislators are poised to
introduce amendments to the Andean Regional Initiative. One would prohibit
funds from being used for aerial fumigation. Others would transfer funds
designated for military assistance to alternative agricultural development
and to drug treatment programs at home.

One of the most important amendments would restore the cap on civilian
contractors to the 300 threshold Plan Colombia. Without warning, the Bush
administration suddenly sought to eliminate any caps at all. That move gave
some members of Congress the jitters. They worry that an absence of caps
will allow the United States to field a privatized mercenary army made up
of contract civilian personnel.

It is not too late to reconsider our foreign policy in the Andean region:

- -- Congress should restore caps on civilian contract personnel.

- -- As a condition for assistance, Congress should insist that Colombian
paramilitary bases be dismantled.

- -- Aerial eradication programs should be replaced by aid for alternative
agricultural development.

- -- The United States should suspend funding to Andean militaries for
counternarcotics purposes and instead dedicate that money for drug
treatment programs at home.

- -- Right now, 71 percent of funds to the Andean region will go for military
assistance. The United States should use these funds to provide assistance
for government reforms, anti-poverty programs and social and economic
assistance for refugees.

This is a war that cannot be won by military means. It has no concrete goal,

no popular support and no exit strategy.

In the end, only a political solution will stop Colombia's civil war from
turning into a regional war zone and end the decades of struggle that has
turned that nation into a land of refugees and ghosts.