COLOMBIA AID MEANS MORE PAIN

President Clinton last week signed a $1.3bn (UKP880m) military aid bill
to combat drug traffickers and promote peace in strife-torn Colombia. But
Colombian human rights activists have profound reservations about the
controversial package.

Most of this American assistance will pay for helicopters used for coca
eradication, or will fund the US military advisers training Colombian
security troops in the latest drug interdiction and intelligence techniques.
A cornucopia of social development programmes, from crop substitution to
health care, will also be showcased.

Meanwhile, the Colombian President, Andres Pastrana, aims to resolve four
decades of bloody insurgency through negotiation with the guerrillas.

More than 35,000 lives have been lost in the past decade of unrest, but
United Nations and European Union officials here have suggested privately
that US military participation is likely to intensify the bloodshed in
Colombia.

Rights activists from over 100 small agencies argue that the US military
strategy behind "Plan Colombia" would make their own participation unethical
and would cast them as potential targets for the left-wing guerrillas. But
those who decline the new funding risk being reclassified by the
paramilitary death squads as rebel sympathisers.

"We see this as one big package, in which you can't differentiate the
military from the social part," complained Diego Perez, who heads a Jesuit
think tank boycotting the Plan.

Most international economic development programmes are expected to
participate, however, and an extra $700m is due from Japanese and European
donors. Candido Rod-riguez, the EU's envoy in Bogota, may even seek advice
from guerrillas. "We can't start a project without being sure that it can be
implemented," Mr Rodriguez said.

Raul Reyes, a spokesman for the rebel movement Farc (the Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia), warned that American interference means Colombians now
must brace themselves for "the worst conflict the country has seen".

Even the Colombian armed forces commander, General Fernando Tapias, concedes
that his divided nation has reached "a point of no return". "There will be
peace – but first there will be war," he said.

Though the Medellin and Cali cocaine cartels have been practically
dismembered in recent years, Colombia continues to supply the US with 80 per
cent of its cocaine. Washington's anti-drug chief, Barry McAffrey, says more
than 16,000 Farc "narco-guerrillas" are filling the vacuum, using drug
revenues to buy arms.

Right-wing paramilitary squads also have been caught trading cocaine for
arms this year, while sales of Andes heroin are sky-rocketing. Addicts are
routinely shot by guerrillas if they are found scavenging from illicit
drug-processing plants, according to Timothy Ross, a British aid worker who
runs street shelters in Bogota.

Amnesty International accuses the Colombian military of forced civilian
displacements and disappearances, as well as village massacres in league
with paramilitary squads. Under Plan Colombia, rights abuses by the armed
forces must be subject to full scrutiny by a civilian rights tribunal. But
the stricture has not so far inspired much confidence.

Such an investigation is already under way into the army's most recent
atrocity, when machinegun fire mowed down half a dozen schoolchildren on a
nature hike near Pueblo Rico. Army patrols claim to have exchanged fire with
National Liberation Army (ELN) scouts in this northern area hours earlier,
and suspected a human shield.

The six children, aged between 7 and 15, died in front of scores of
straggling classmates. "I walked beside my daughter and the bullets went
between her legs," recalled Mary Lopez, the only parent chaperone present.
"We threw ourselves into a ravine and waited it out."

The Defence Minister, Luis Fernando Ramirez, told The Independent on Sunday
that the tragedy "was a horrifying mistake, but was not intentional. The
inquiries will be exhaustive." The 30 soldiers allegedly involved have been
suspended from active duty.

Youngsters frequently are pressed to be informants and couriers for rebels;
teenage casualties are commonplace in a guerrilla force that employs an
estimated 6000 minors. Since January, 460 underage Colombians have died in
battle or crossfire, and another 58 children have been maimed by landmines.
At least 100 more are being held captive.

Inaugurating a Justice House, an innovative legal assistance centre in the
Cartagena slums, will be the populist centrepiece when Mr Clinton visits on
Wednesday. But it is difficult to see what justice Plan Colombia will bring
for these children. Too many Colombians envision their children's future
blighted by old hatreds and greed for easy drug profits. Few believe that,
even with US military aid, daily life will get better before it gets worse.