COLOMBIANS TRAIN FOR DRUG WAR

U.S.-Backed Battalions, Screened For Trafficking, Abuse, Will Join Battle

LARANDIA ARMY BASE, Colombia -- U.S. Green Beret trainers watched proudly
as Colombian troops reacted to an "ambush" with a withering blast of
gunfire and by hurling hand grenades.

The aggressive response during training exercises -- opened for the first
time to journalists on Friday -- was one the U.S. Special Forces have been
instilling into their charges, who will soon combat drug trafficking in an
area swarming with rebels and paramilitaries.

The battalion will finish its months-long training in this sprawling jungle
base on May 24, and will join two other counternarcotics battalions -- a
total of 3,000 soldiers -- that have been trained by the Green Berets since
April 1999.

Amid criticism from human rights groups and even the U.S. State Department
that Colombian security forces have a poor human rights record, the U.S.
Embassy investigated each of the 3,000 soldiers to make sure they have not
been accused of abuses or drug trafficking.

But they will likely be conducting joint anti-drug operations with
Colombian counterguerrilla battalions which have not undergone such
scrutiny -- and which have a reputation of maintaining covert links with
the paramilitary United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, which has been
massacring suspected rebel collaborators.

Army Gen. Mario Montoya, the commander of Colombia's southern region where
the U.S.-trained battalions will be based, rejected allegations by human
rights groups that some army units are fighting a dirty war against rebels.

"If we were as bloodthirsty as people say, the war would have been over by
now -- we would have killed all the bad guys," Montoya said.

The newly trained troops will join the other two counternarcotics
battalions in operations against coca plantations and drug labs, mostly in
Putumayo and Caqueta states, which together produce more than 60 percent of
Colombia's cocaine.

The U.S backing of Colombia's military, which has been fighting a 37-year
war against rebels, has some critics suspecting the assistance is more
geared at helping wipe out the rebellion instead of stemming drug trafficking.

Since the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia -- the biggest rebel group
- -- earns millions of dollars by protecting and taxing drug crops, as do the
rival paramilitaries, the U.S.-trained troops will have wide clearance to
launch attacks.

Under the $1.3-billion U.S. aid package, 16 Blackhawk and 25 Super Huey
helicopters will begin arriving in July for the counternarcotics battalions.