REED, CHAFEE SAY U.S. AID HELPING COLOMBIA'S WAR ON DRUGS

Both Rhode Island senators, who just returned from the South American
nation, are upbeat that the $1.3-billion aid package is making a
difference in cutting cocaine production.

Rhode Island's two U.S. senators say they're confident a $1.3-billion
aid package to Colombia is fighting the drug trade as intended and
might help to resolve the decades-old civil war between the
government and guerrilla groups.

Both Democrat Sen. Jack Reed and Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee
returned recently from separate trips to the South American country,
where intensifying violence has spawned a new exodus of refugees to
places such as Rhode Island, with large Colombian populations.

The drug trade and Colombia's civil war are intricately woven. In the
years since the fall of the Soviet Union, the country's two major
Marxist guerrilla groups have turned to drug trafficking as their
principle means of financing their war.

Last year Congress approved sending $1.3 billion in mostly military
aid to Colombia to help cut cocaine production (most of which is used
in the United States) and, in turn, dry up the guerrillas' primary
source of money.

Both Reed and Chafee voted in favor of "Plan Colombia," which is
supplying dozens of U.S. helicopters and 800 military and civilian
advisers. About 300 Special Forces soldiers train the Colombian
military in destroying cocaine-producing labs in the jungle, while
the helicopters fly protection for Colombian planes fumigating coca
fields.

Colombia produces about 80 percent of the world's cocaine.

Reed, who serves on the Senate Armed Services Committee, returned
Sunday from two days in Colombia. There, he and several other
senators met with Colombian President Andres Pastrana and visited
training encampments.

The Colombian soldiers "are serious about dealing with the issue of
depressing coca production," Reed said, "and are highly motivated."

In recent years, Colombia's military has also been harshly criticized
for human-rights violations on its own countrymen. The allegations
include working in collusion with private armies -- known as
paramilitary groups -- which hunt down guerrillas and their
sympathizers and have been responsible for brutal killings.

"Through the training of American Special Forces," Reed said, "the
military's sensitivity to human rights has increased. They are not
perfect, but they understand they have to follow the law.

"What we've done is try to assure that no American aid goes to any
Colombian military unit with human-rights violations," Reed said. And
all Colombian soldiers participating in Plan Colombia must have
similar clean records, he said.

Senator Chafee returned last week from three days in Colombia. A
member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and chairman of the
Western Hemisphere Subcommittee, Chafee supported passage of Plan
Colombia "with reservations as to how it was going to be spent."

Chafee was concerned the aid money would "end up in some Swiss bank
account" rather than for its intended purpose.

His recent trip reassured him.

"It was surprising the commitment we were making down there and the
enthusiasm for the challenge. I went with some skepticism that we
would get the spin -- would be taken only to where the good things
were happening. But in talking to as many people as possible on the
periphery, I just got good feelings that because of the commitment we
are making, [the guerrillas] are starting to negotiate.

"I'm never one to relish getting involved in someone else's violent
dispute," Chafee said, "but I think the good people of Colombia are
looking for someone to help them."

Some critics of Plan Colombia say further U.S. involvement within
Colombia raises the potential of "another Vietnam." But neither
Chafee nor Reed see that as a real danger.

"I think the big difference here is the people of Colombia want the
conflict ended," Chafee said. "They see other countries around them
where democracy has taken root, economies are flourishing, and they
want a piece of that and this is certainly an impediment to
investment -- this anarchy that presently exists with kidnappings and
bombings."

Colombia has become the world's kidnap capital -- more than 3,100
reported last year -- as the guerrilla groups turn to kidnapping for
ransom members of the nation's middle- and upper-classes.

While a Vietnam scenario is one to be mindful of, Reed said, several
differences exist that prevent it from happening.

"First, the Colombian military force is a credible military force
that is willing to conduct these operations themselves. Secondly,
this is a country that has a history over several hundred years of
democracy. They freely elect their president and leaders. They also
have high rates of literacy and this is not a nation that doesn't
have the institutions you need to operate independently."

Colombian President Pastrana, in a meeting with U.S. governors
Tuesday in Washington, promised that the United States would "never
get bogged down" in Colombia's conflict.

Pastrana said neither the people in Colombia or the United States
would support U.S. troop involvement. "In short," he said, "it is not
on the table, not now or in the future."