CANADIAN FIRM HELPS MILITARY IN COLOMBIA

Federal Government Gives OK Despite Country's Rights Record

A Canadian aerospace firm is helping maintain helicopters for the Colombian
military with the federal government's blessing, despite the country's
atrocious human rights record and massacres of civilians by Colombia's
armed forces.

Vector Aerospace of St. John's, Newfoundland announced last month that it
had signed a $6.5-million contract with Colombia to overhaul engine
components and supply parts for military helicopters, the workhorse of the
South American country's army.

Canadian export regulations prevent the sale of military goods and
technology to governments with persistent human rights violations, unless
it can be demonstrated that there is no reasonable risk the goods will be
used against the civilian population.

Colombia's army and affiliated para-military organizations have been cited
for numerous violations by international organization Human Rights Watch.
Most appalling was an attack last August in which troops fired
indiscriminately into a crowd in the town of Pueblo Rico, killing six
elementary school children who were on a field trip.

"According to witnesses, soldiers fired for forty minutes, ignoring the
screams of the adult chaperones," Human Rights Watch wrote in a report.

Vector Aerospace's CEO, Mark Dobbin, says his company does not vet the
human rights records of countries the company does business with,
preferring to rely on the government for direction.

"We follow the Canadian government guidelines, and if they deem it a
country suitable for doing business, then we tend to agree with that," he
said. "I don't believe it is appropriate for me, as a custodian of our
shareholders' money, to make those types of value judgments."

Mr. Dobbin described military contracts as 'a growth market' for the
publicly-traded company.

A spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade
said the department's export control division decided that Vector did not
require a special export permit because the helicopters parts are
considered civilian products, not military equipment.

"They argue that it's civilian equipment, but the end user is the Colombian
military," said NDP MP Svend Robinson, who recently returned from a trip to
Colombia. "What guarantee is there that this equipment won't be used in a
way that Canada doesn't accept?"

Mr. Robinson said doing business with the Colombian army is "totally
unacceptable" given its well-documented history of human rights abuse.

Richard Sanders, a member of the Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade, says
defence contractors often rely on "loose loopholes" in regulations that
allows the export of civilian equipment that may ultimately be used for
military applications. A common method, he says, is to ship to the U.S.,
where the equipment is modified before being sent to its destination.

Canada has exported helicopters directly to Colombia before. In 1994, a
Quebec company won a contract to supply 12 Bell helicopters, the same model
used by the U.S. for counter-insurgency operations in Vietnam. Again, the
government allowed the export because the company claimed the aircraft
would not be used for military purposes, even though some of the choppers
had already been earmarked for counter-insurgency operations. The U.S. is
also a major supplier of helicopters to the Colombian military for use in
drug interdiction.

The Colombians have been criticized for the blurring the lines between the
drug war and its battle with guerrillas, which has resulted in the massacre
of thousands of unarmed civilians. Colombia's armed forces and affiliated
para-military groups have killed some 20,000 civilians in the crackdown
since 1996, according to an Amnesty International report.

Human Rights Watch accuses Colombia's military of "direct collaboration"
with para-militaries in attacks on civilians, including a massacre last
year in the village of El Salado. While the military blocked the
International Red Cross from entering the area, a para-military group
conducted a two-day orgy of violence that left 36 villagers dead.

"They tortured, garroted, stabbed, decapitated, and shot residents," claims
a report. "Witnesses told investigators that they tied one six-year-old
girl to a pole and suffocated her with a plastic bag. One woman was
reportedly gang-raped."