DESPITE RIGHTS CONCERNS, CLINTON LIKELY TO CLEAR AID FOR COLOMBIA

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Despite objections from human rights advocates,
President Clinton is expected to clear the way next week for the release of
the remaining money in a $1.3 billion Colombian anti-drug aid package.

" The president has supported Plan Colombia and you can expect that he will
continue to support Plan Colombia, " said National Security Council
spokesman P.J. Crowley.

In a report issued Friday, human rights groups urged Clinton to block the
aid, saying Colombia has failed to meet any of the rights requirements set
out by Congress.

The groups fear that Clinton will invoke a national security waiver to
bypass the conditions -- as he did in August when he allowed most of the
package' s money to go through.

" We' re pretty certain these conditions will be waived. That' s the
message we' ve been hearing, " said Andrew Miller of Amnesty International,
which issued the report together with Human Rights Watch and the Washington
Office on Latin America.

What' s at stake is a relatively small part of the $1.3 billion package.
Rights groups estimate about $100 million is left. Neither Crowley nor
State Department officials could provide a precise figure.

Most of the package was for the last fiscal year, providing Colombia with
helicopters and other military equipment to fight leftist guerrillas who
partly finance their insurgency by protecting coca fields and cocaine
laboratories.

Because of concerns about Colombian army links to paramilitaries blamed for
most of the country' s massacres, Congress set six conditions -- five
related to human rights -- that Colombia had to meet before the money could
be spent.

But Congress allowed the president to waive these conditions on national
security grounds. In August, Clinton waived five conditions and certified
only one: that Colombia' s president has directed that soldiers accused of
rights violations be tried in civilian courts.

Miller and George Vickers, executive director of the Washington Office on
Latin America, said they expect one more condition will be certified: the
deployment of a judge advocate general corps to investigate military
misconduct. They expect the other conditions will be waived.

" It sends a p.r. message that will be played very widely in Colombia: That
the president of the United States says that they are making progress in
human rights concerns, when in fact nothing substantively has changed and
in fact some things have gotten worse, " Vickers said.

Crowley said Clinton will act on the Colombian aid before his term ends
next Saturday, but he said no decision has been made about how he will
address the rights conditions.

On Thursday, two Democratic senators called on Clinton not to use the
waiver again.

" The Colombian military has still not taken the firm clear steps necessary
to remove human rights abusers from its ranks or to ensure that its
personnel are not linked to paramilitary organizations, " Paul Wellstone of
Minnesota and Tom Harkin of Iowa said in a letter to Clinton.

On the Net:

State Department on Colombia aid:
http://www.state.gov/www/regions/wha/colombia/index.html

Center for International Policy, which opposes the aid:
http://www.ciponline.org/colombia/aid/