US WADES INTO COLOMBIA'S DIRTY WAR

Clinton's Drive Against Cocaine Trade Will Worsen Violence, Human Rights
Groups Say

President Clinton arrives in Colombia today amid tight security for a visit
that will underline a deepening US commitment to a messy civil war
involving government forces, paramilitary death squads, leftist rebels and
90% of the world's cocaine.

In the first trip to the country by a US president in a decade, Mr Clinton
will throw his weight behind Plan Colombia, an ambitious strategy which the
Colombian government hopes will put an end to the drugs trade and bring
peace after nearly 40 years of fighting.

Visiting the capital, Bogota, was deemed too risky, so Mr Clinton will meet
the Colombian president, Andres Pastrana, in the resort of Cartagena, on
the Caribbean coast, guarded by 5,000 Colombian troops and 350 US agents.

"Colombia's success is profoundly in the interest of the United States a
peaceful, democratic and economically prosperous Colombia will help promote
democracy and stability throughout the hemisphere," Mr Clinton said earlier
this month.

Acknowledging both Colombia's strategic importance and its growing
instability, Mr Clinton has supported Plan Colombia from its inception, and
pledged $1.3bn (?867m) towards the scheme. But critics of the aid package
fear the money will only cause the fighting to escalate, and may even
spread political and drug-related violence throughout the region.

Human Rights

While some US aid will go to development programmes and an overhaul of
Colombia's legal system, most will be spent on equipment and training for
security forces, despite persistent concerns over the military's human
rights record.

Monitoring groups regularly accuse the Colombian army of standing by while
rightwing paramilitaries massacre unarmed civilians they accuse of helping
leftist rebels.

Last week Mr Clinton waived strict human rights conditions imposed by
Congress and authorised the aid package, arguing that Colombia's situation
was a matter of US national security. But a White House memorandum
justifying the decision acknowledged that "there remain disturbing,
credible allegations that individual Colombian military officers continue
to collaborate with paramilitaries".

The waiver provoked criticism from human rights groups. "It gives a clear
message that from the US point of view, human rights are not important.
What matters for them is the war on drugs," said Jorge Rojas of the
Consultancy for Human Rights and Displacement, a Bogota-based monitoring group.

There are signs that US aid has already led to an escalation of Colombia's
civil war. In March, the country's largest guerrilla group, the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) said it would step up
kidnappings for ransom in order to raise funds equal to the US military aid.

The guerrillas have also increased their attacks against isolated police
stations, part of a long-term strategy to strengthen their control of rural
Colombia. Although they have been involved in peace talks since last year,
no ceasefire has been signed and, since January, the rebels have attacked
50 such stations. Sixty officers and dozens of civilians have been killed.

"Farc is accelerating its plans for territorial control, but the guerrillas
are not the only ones getting stronger. State forces are improving, as are
the paramilitaries. Inevitably there will be an escalation," said defence
analyst Alfredo Rangel.

In early August, 83 US Green Berets arrived in the country to train the
second of three counter-narcotics battalions con templated in Plan
Colombia. These units will lead a campaign into the rebel-dominated
southern jungles of Colombia, where most of the world's cocaine is made.

"Our aid is strictly limited to anti-narcotics activities. It is not
directed towards supporting counter-insurgent operations," Mr Clinton told
the Colombian magazine Cambio this week. But Colombian military commanders
recognise that a push in the region will inevitably bring troops into
combat with several thousand Farc guerrillas who protect drug installations
in return for "war taxes".

Attack

"We will attack anyone in the drugs trade - FARC, paramilitaries or
whoever," said General Mario Montoya, commander of the army's southern task
force.

It is still unclear how a military strike against drug plantations will
tally with the second component of Plan Colombia: a package of social
development to help wean locals from growing drug crops.

According to Mr Pastrana, investment in education, infrastructure and
services will play a key part in establishing the rule of law in the
southern regions of Putumayo and Caqueta. Traditionally, Colombian
governments have paid little attention to these remote Amazon regions,
allowing both rebel columns and drug plantations to grow unchecked.

In the past, Colombia has focused on spending "to prevent drugs reaching
the streets of the US, instead of investing in education, sewage systems,
housing", said Mr Pastrana. "We want to work hand in hand with the
communities, instead of concentrating on the policing aspect".

But funding for social development programmes remains in doubt. At a
conference in Madrid last month, European countries failed to pledge the
$1bn (?667m) Mr Pastrana had hoped for.

Meanwhile, Farc is reported to be giving weapons training to peasants in
Putumayo, and refugee groups fear that up to 200,000 people will flee their
homes if widespread fighting breaks out.

Neighbouring countries have expressed concern that the plan may cause
Colombia's civil war to spill across its borders. Ecuador and Brazil have
reinforced security along their jungle frontiers. Peru's president, Alberto
Fujimori, said last week that an anti-narcotics drive could threaten the
stability of the entire region.

"How can you strengthen democracy in the midst of a war?" said Mr Rojas.
His organisation and 36 more Colombian human rights, Indian and development
groups have said they will not participate in projects funded under the plan.

Farc chiefs say Mr Clinton's approval of Plan Colombia was timed to
coincide with the US election campaign. Speaking from a stronghold in
southern Colombia, Commander Andres Paris said: "They want to spill
Colombian blood to help their presidential candidates."

50 Years Of Conflict

948 Assassination of popular liberal politician leads to rural unrest which
claims 300,000 lives over next decade

1953-57 Military seize power, before returning it to coalition rule by
liberal and conservative parties

1964 Colombian military launch US-backed Operation Laso, to destroy leftist
guerrillas. It fails and marks foundation of the Revolutionary Armed Forces
of Colombia (Farc), a communist guerrilla movement

1966 Creation of rival, smaller guerrilla group, Army of National
Liberation (ELN)

1980s Emergence of right-wing narco-paramilitaries who target guerrilla
groups and their supporters. Farc's political wing loses 4,000 people
killed by drug-traffickers

1990 US president George Bush announces war on drugs

1992 US says it will stop aid to Colombian army amid claims that the army
used the cash to fight Marxist rebels

1993 Medellin drug baron Pablo Escobar is shot dead by Colombian police
after a US-backed search

1994 Allegations that Colombian president-elect Ernesto Samper's election
campaign was funded by $6m from a Cali drug cartel lead to him losing his
US travel visa.

1997 First US civilian pilot, working under a state department contract, is
killed on a drug crop fumigation flight in south-east Colombia

1998 Farc is granted a 15,000 square mile demilitarised zone to encourage
peace talks

June 2000 US Senate gives final approval to record $1.3bn package of
military aid to help fight drugs and Marxist guerrillas