RISKY STRATEGY

If peace ever comes to Colombia, it will have to be negotiated.

President Andres Pastrana is a democrat and a reformer who deserves
support as he tries to rein in the country's cocaine and heroin
traffickers and opens peace talks with Marxist guerrillas. But Pastrana
is unlikely to succeed in imposing his will. He has 50,000 troops, the
guerrillas, 20,000. They control two-fifths of the country and won't
easily be dislodged. The 30-year war has claimed 35,000 lives.

That's what makes President Bill Clinton's recently announced $1.3
billion (U.S.) military package for Pastrana such a gamble. Most of the
money will be used to provide American adviser/trainers for elite
Colombian troops and to purchase 60 attack helicopters, ostensibly to
fight the drug traffickers. But it's hard to imagine they won't be used
on the guerrillas as well, who protect the traffickers even as they
extort protection money from them. And the army is notorious for
abusing civilians unlucky enough to live in rebel-held areas.

Washington's help (which contains $240 million to promote human rights
and to wean people from drug cultivation) is designed to strengthen
Pastrana's hand in restoring order, something that millions of
Colombians would welcome. But pouring guns into the stalemated conflict
risks compounding Colombia's suffering, and may further destabilize the
country of 40 million which borders oil-rich Venezuela and Panama, as
well as Peru, Ecuador and Brazil.

Canada's approach to settling the hemisphere's last civil war rejects
guns as a solution. Rather, we have encouraged all sides to talk,
offered mediation and peacekeeping services and have lent aid in
support of human rights, the rule of law and crop reform. As tension
builds, those are increasingly urgent priorities.