MOSCOW ATTACKS U.S. AID TO COLOMBIA

Decries 'Dangerous Aspirations Of The Western Military'

Moscow has condemned the recently announced U.S. aid package --
predominately military in nature -- to the South American nation of
Colombia.

The $1.3 billion in U.S. assistance is "a fresh model of interference
in another country's affairs" and further evidence of "the dangerous
aspirations of the Western military," according to official Russian
sources.

Moscow suspects that the military aid offered to Colombia "will fight
not only against drug dealers but [also] against rebels ..." in order
"to test, in practical terms, direct global policy in the conditions of
yet another country."

The statements were carried by the Voice of Russia World Service, the
official broadcasting service of the Russian government.

The aid package is part of Plan Colombia, an initiative of Colombian
President Andres Pastrana, to eliminate the manufacturing and sale of
drugs, which have financed that nation's 40-year civil war.

According to Moscow, the United States is interested only in the
military aspects of Plan Colombia. "It was unpleasant to Washington
that the Colombia Plan also sought support for social reforms and
strengthened the democratic institutions" of Colombia, the broadcast
declared.

While admitting "the Colombian authorities have themselves called for
international assistance," Moscow nevertheless denounced "the purchase
of 60 helicopters and the training of Colombian 'task units.'"

At present, Colombian Marxist guerrilla groups and drug lords hold
approximately 40 percent of the nation in their grip. The rebels obtain
money from the profits of the drug cartel in order to finance their
operations.

Echoing the threat of the Colombian guerrillas, Moscow warned "this new
escalation" would make "the domestic Colombian conflict international."

Moscow also tied U.S. aid to Colombia to the events in the Balkans by
stating, "The recent aggression of the United States and NATO against
Yugoslavia, among other events, has alerted Russia to the dangerous
aspirations of the Western military."

"This explains," according to Moscow, "why only the most naive can
remain unperturbed" by President Bill Clinton's statement asserting
that the new aid package would not lead to another Vietnam-type
conflict, nor is it an act of "imperialism."

Moscow's distress over U.S. aid to Colombia comes at a time when Russia
itself is involved in direct military aid to former Soviet republics
struggling against Islamic fundamentalist guerrilla groups infiltrating
from neighboring Afghanistan.

The day before Moscow expressed its displeasure at U.S. military
assistance to Colombia, the Russian government announced that the
Central Asian state of Uzbekistan requested -- and would receive --
military assistance from Russia "to eliminate units of Islamic
fundamentalists which invaded the republic."

Moscow considers the request from Uzbekistan as "an alarm signal which
is evidence of growing tension in Central Asia."

Observers have noted that Central Asia is not only affected by an
incursion of Islamic militants, but that the guerrillas are also
finding recruits among young Muslims in the area to increase their
numbers.

Ironically, while Moscow considers U.S. aid to Colombia as testing a
"model of interference in another country's affairs," Russia's military
aid to Uzbekistan is reported as done merely "according to bilateral
agreement."

Editor's note: WND's multi-lingual reporter Toby Westerman
specializes in monitoring global shortwave broadcasts and reading
foreign-language news journals for information not readily available
from the domestic press. Each month, Westerman presents a special
in-depth report in WorldNetDaily's monthly magazine, WorldNet. Readers
may subscribe to WorldNet through WND's online store.