AID TO COLOMBIA WILL INCREASE PEASANT DEATHS

PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON visited Colombia, my country, recently, to emphasize
the U.S. government's commitment to the struggle against drug trafficking
and to build support for efforts to destroy illegal crops, prosecute
narcotraffickers and combat guerrillas that protect them.

Like many other Colombians, I would welcome the U.S. military aid if it
helped the Colombian government push the guerrillas to the negotiating
table, thereby improving the prospects for a peace agreement that would put
an end to a cruel war.

The guerrillas have established an instrumental relationship with drug
traffickers, accumulated enough military power to lay siege to the
government, and displayed a strategy indifferent to the international
humanitarian law.

I cannot, however, welcome aid given under the most ominous terms: "We
provide the money; you provide the corpses."

As it is conceived under the current plan, the military aid will primarily
affect the most vulnerable links in the drug trafficking chain: peasants
who plant illegal crops. The U.S. government set goals regarding the
reduction of those crops that Colombian authorities have to achieve.

Who will set goals for the U.S. government for stopping the flow of arms to
the country, which guerrillas, paramilitaries and criminals can buy in
black markets? Who will set goals for stopping the flow of chemicals used
for processing cocaine? For dismantling money laundries? For preventing
consumption through education and for promoting rehabilitation?

I cannot welcome Bill Clinton's cynicism. In Colombia, he stressed the
importance of respecting human rights. A few days ago, however, he signed a
waiver authorizing the military aid to the Colombian government even though
it has not met all the human rights conditions set by the U.S. Congress.
Paramilitary groups, which are responsible for a large number of political
killings, do receive financial support from drug traffickers, but this
issue is kept out of the spotlight by the U.S. government because the
paramilitaries also assist the Army against the guerrillas.

I cannot join those who think this war against drugs is correct, for this
war is ultimately rooted in the idea some people have that they are
entitled to force others to improve their lives.

Unfortunately, this moral perfectionism and paternalism is embedded in the
culture of the United States. I would appeal, instead, to the best
political traditions of the United States -- those of tolerance, personal
freedom, critical judgment and public discussion.

I do not hold any expectation of anything better from the next president of
the United States whoever that will be, but I believe alert citizens can
get information by themselves about what their government is doing, how it
affects people in other countries and demand responsibility on the part of
their public officials.