CLINTON TRIES TO SOOTHE CONCERNS OVER COLOMBIA AID

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Clinton, on the eve of a trip to Colombia,
tried on Tuesday to soothe any concerns among Colombians that a $1.3
billion anti-drug plan marked growing U.S. intervention in that country.

Clinton's trip comes as U.S. military advisers have begun training two
special army battalions that will protect Colombian police missions to
destroy drug plantations and labs in guerrilla-controlled areas of southern
Colombia.

"Please do not misunderstand our purpose," Clinton said in a videotaped
message to the Colombian people. "We have no military objective. We do not
believe your conflict has a military solution. We support the peace
process. Our approach is both pro-peace and anti-drug."

Colombia's main rebel forces and key labor organizations have condemned the
U.S. plan, much of which consists of military aid to help the Andean nation
fight drugs and guerrillas. They said the aid signaled growing U.S.
intervention that could inflame Colombia's three-decade-old conflict.

Clinton said the United States was only contributing to Colombia's own $7.5
billion plan for fighting drugs.

"Let me be clear about the role of the United States," he said. "First, it
is not for us to propose a plan. We are supporting the Colombian plan. You
are leading. We are providing assistance as a friend and a neighbor."

Clinton last week waived human rights conditions in order to begin
releasing the U.S. assistance, a decision that troubled some Democratic
politicians who had urged the Clinton administration to use the conditions
as a way to pressure Colombia into improving its human rights record.

Human rights organizations complain that Colombian military officers who
have committed serious abuses are routinely acquitted and that dozens of
prominent human rights cases go unsolved.

No Aid For Those Linked To Abuses

Clinton said the U.S. package provides human rights training for the
Colombian military and police, and denies U.S. assistance to any units of
the Colombian security forces involved in human rights abuses or linked to
abuses committed by paramilitary forces.

"Today's world has no place and no patience for any group that attacks
defenseless citizens or resorts to kidnapping and extortion," Clinton said.

"Those who seek legitimacy in Colombian society must meet the standards of
those who confer legitimacy, the good and decent people of Colombia," he said.

Clinton said the United States was working to reduce the demand in America
for illegal drugs, but that the problem also had to be confronted at its
source.

He said the U.S. aid would help train and equip Colombia's anti-drug units
to protect the national police as they eradicate illicit drug crops and
destroy drug labs.

"We will help the Colombian military improve their ability to intercept
traffickers before they leave Colombia. We will target illegal airstrips,
money-laundering and criminal organizations," he said.

A Gallup survey in Colombia released on Monday said 56 percent of
respondents favored U.S. military intervention to resolve the 35-year-old
conflict that has cost more than 35,000 lives in the past decade alone,
although 76 percent said such a move would be tantamount to U.S. meddling
in another country's internal affairs.

Clinton, just back from a trip to Nigeria, Tanzania and Egypt, will hold
formal talks with Colombian President Andres Pastrana and have lunch with
him in the Caribbean resort of Cartagena during his day-long visit to
Colombia on Wednesday.

The president will also inspect drug interdiction efforts in the Port of
Cartagena and meet members of the Colombian national police and talk to
widows of police officers killed in the line of duty.