US-BACKED DRUG WAR HAS STRONG START

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- U.S.-trained army troops are sweeping
through the world's top cocaine-producing region, protecting
crop-dusters from enemy fire as they wipe out coca crops at an
astonishing pace.

But the initial success of the anti-drug offensive -- heavily
supported by the United States and criticized by European nations --
cannot be sustained indefinitely, acknowledged a senior U.S. military
official based in Colombia.

Washington's gamble that it can win the drug war with military power
includes the deployment of U.S. special forces as trainers to jungle
camps near the war zone and the delivery of dozens of combat
helicopters.

So far, the results of the counterdrug operations in southern
Putumayo state, the world's largest cocaine-producing region, have
been beyond most anyone's expectations, although some food crops have
been destroyed.

In the past month, 62,000 acres of coca have been fumigated in
Putumayo, said the U.S. military official, who spoke on condition
that he not be further identified. That acreage is at least one-third
of the coca crop believed to exist in Putumayo, and more than half
the coca that was fumigated across all of Colombia in 1999.

But the pace will be virtually impossible to maintain, the U.S.
official said, partly because of expected ``hostile fire'' and
logistics in the remote Amazonian region.

The country's largest rebel group -- the Revolutionary Armed Forces
of Colombia, or FARC -- earns huge profits by protecting coca crops
and taxing the growers. Rebel threats to resist the offensive haven't
yet materialized into major action.

However, 70 percent of the coca fumigated so far in Putumayo was
under control not of the FARC but of a right-wing paramilitary group,
the U.S. military official said.

The paramilitary group, which also ``taxes'' the coca industry, is
unlikely to fight the army because it often maintains covert
alliances with army officers -- as noted in a recent White House
human rights report.

Gonzalo de Francisco, President Andres Pastrana's point man for
Putumayo, agreed that when the U.S.-trained army troops move into
guerrilla strongholds, fighting will intensify.

``The FARC has been there for five years,'' he said. ``They will resist.''

It's the goal of the U.S. and Colombia that the increased spray
operations will eventually outpace the planters' ability to move to
new areas.

Under the U.S. aid package, 10 fumigation planes will be deployed in
addition to the 10 already being used. U.S. special forces have also
been training three Colombian army battalions, containing about 3,000
troops, to fight the drug war.

The United States also will be sending dozens of Black Hawk
helicopters to Colombia later this year and ``Super Huey''
helicopters by March 2002.

Critics of the U.S. military aid to Colombia often draw comparisons
to the early years of the Vietnam War, when Washington's involvement
began with the deployment of a few military advisers.

Under Washington's $1.3 billion aid package to Colombia, no more than
500 U.S. soldiers and 300 contract employees can be in the country at
one time. They are barred from going into combat.

The FARC has declared that U.S. troops found in war zones would be
considered ``military targets.''

The U.S. military official insisted that the Green Berets and other
U.S special forces troops are stationed primarily in ``areas where
contact with hostile forces is unlikely.''

``Force protection of deployed U.S. trainers is critical,'' he said.