COLOMBIA DRUG WAR RAISES FEARS, TENSION IN REGION

Aiming To Stop Spread Of Conflict, Neighbors Increase Border Troops

BOGOTA, Colombia -- On the eve of President Clinton's visit to Colombia,
neighboring countries are growing increasingly worried about a planned
U.S.-backed drug war -- and some are preparing for a possible spillover by
sending troops to the borders.

The offensive -- to be carried out by Colombian soldiers trained by Green
Berets and other U.S. special warfare forces -- is expected to displace
thousands of people.

The rebels, who earn millions of dollars from a drug-protection racket,
have vowed to fight the Colombian troops, who are to be deployed on
U.S.-donated combat helicopters. Eighty-three U.S. troops are training
soldiers from a new 1,000-member anti-narcotics battalion at a base in
southern Colombia.

Colombia plans to deploy 3,000 soldiers in the offensive, expected to begin
next year.

Ecuador, which lies to the south and is within sight of Colombian
cocaine-producing plantations, has doubled its border forces to 4,000
troops, the Ecuadorean Defense Ministry said.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees agency has sent delegates to the
Ecuadorean border region and is considering building a camp to hold some
5,000 Colombian refugees.

On Colombia's untamed frontier with Panama to the northwest, fighting
between rebels and government troops has spilled over the border in recent
years, and thousands of Colombian refugees have crossed the boundary.

Panamanian officials fear that the situation will only get worse when the
anti-drug war heats up. Interior Minister Winston Spadafora said he has
requested aid from the United Nations to prepare for spillover.

On Colombia's eastern border, Brazil has reportedly begun beefing up
security along the 960-mile frontier between the two countries, amid fears
that the anti-drug offensive could send Colombian guerrillas fleeing into
Brazil or prompt coca growers to move into its vast Amazon jungle.

A Brazilian Foreign Ministry official said the country is also worried that
any defoliants used to combat Colombian drug production could damage its
rain forest.

Meanwhile, relations between Colombia and Venezuela, which borders
northeastern Colombia, have hit a sour note over the planned anti-drug
offensive and accusations by Bogota that the Venezuelan army has been
funneling weapons to Colombian rebels -- allegations the Venezuelans deny.

After Venezuela's Foreign Minister Jose Vicente Rangel said in a radio
interview last week that violence in Colombia threatened neighboring
countries, Bogota's Foreign Minister Guillermo Fernandez shot back that
Rangel was showing "a lack of respect for Colombia."

Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori warned last week that the anti-drug
offensive could threaten regional stability.

Tensions and fears persist despite efforts to quell them by both Colombian
and U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and the
new U.S. envoy to Colombia, Anne Patterson.

Patterson has called the concerns "a little exaggerated" but said
Washington would do what it could to help remedy any problems.

Colombia has also sought to calm the fears, with Fernandez offering
assurances that the government plans major social programs in
drug-producing areas to help people displaced by the fighting and to
discourage them from fleeing into neighboring countries.

Demand is growing in Colombia for officials to cool the situation.

"The Colombian conflict is becoming more of a concern for the security of
our five neighbors," El Espectador , a Bogota daily, said in an editorial
Saturday. "It's not easy being the nucleus of a conflict, but if that is
our luck we must learn to manage the situation."

Colombia's widening conflict is expected to be among the top agenda items
at the South American Presidents Summit, to be held in Brasilia on
Thursday, the day after Clinton's visit to Colombia. Clinton is not
attending that summit.

Yesterday, three leading human rights groups criticized the Clinton
administration for aiding the Colombian military, saying President Andres
Pastrana's government has failed to meet any of the human rights criteria
set by Congress.

Clinton waived several of the conditions and released $1.3 billion, mostly
anti-drug aid, for Colombia last week. The conditions were aimed at
overcoming military abuses and bringing human rights violators to justice.

Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Washington Office on
Latin America assailed Clinton's decision.