CLINTON DEFENDS THE OUTLAY OF $1.3 BILLION TO COLOMBIA

WASHINGTON, Aug. 23 -- President Clinton today defended his decision to
sign a waiver freeing up $1.3 billion in anti-drug assistance for Colombia,
saying that the country is improving on human rights even though the
government of Andres Pastrana has yet to meet all the conditions imposed by
Congress.

"I did it because I believe President Pastrana is committed to dealing with
the human rights issues, about which we're still very concerned," said Mr.
Clinton, who signed the national security waiver on Tuesday night, a week
before he flies to Colombia for a brief trip.

Congress voted in July to support a White House request for economic and
military aid to Colombia, a package designed to interrupt the flow of
cocaine and heroin to the United States.

The aid package, called Plan Colombia, includes $1 billion to train and
equip the army and police forces of Colombia, as well as additional funds
to promote economic development, judicial reform and human rights
improvements. Congress put conditions on the assistance amid concerns about
the Colombian military's poor human rights record and ties to paramilitary
groups.

But lawmakers said Mr. Clinton could waive the conditions for national
security reasons.

Mr. Clinton's use of the waiver was widely expected but it still drew
criticism from some members of Congress and human rights organizations, who
accused him of overlooking the Colombian military's brutal record.

"There is no need or justification for waiving the conditions," said
Senator Patrick Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, who pushed for conditions on
the aid. "These conditions are nothing more than what the Colombian
government and our administration said they would do, and this is not too
much to ask."

Senator Paul Wellstone, Democrat of Minnesota and opponent of the aid
package, was even more critical. "A waiver that ignores Colombia's abysmal
human rights situation gives the green light to the Colombian military to
continue business as usual," Mr. Wellstone said.

But Mr. Clinton, in a Rose Garden appearance today with reporters, said the
situation in Colombia was too precarious to wait.

"I think we've protected our fundamental interests in human rights and
enabled Plan Columbia to have a chance to succeed, which I think is very,
very important for the long-term stability of democracy and human rights in
Colombia and for protecting the American people and the Colombia people
from the drug traffic," the president said.

Among the conditions imposed by Congress were requirements that the
military suspend personnel believed to have committed human rights
violations and that it set up a judge advocate general corps to investigate
abuses. Of seven conditions over all, Mr. Pastrana has satisfied only one,
by issuing a statement warning the military that soldiers accused of human
rights abuses will be tried in the country's civilian courts.

But Mr. Clinton, exercising a waiver on the ground of national security,
declared that a "drug emergency" exists in Colombia and that Mr. Pastrana
is making progress on human rights. The president said the United States
could still turn down specific military units for aid if abuses were uncovered.

Administration officials said that while Colombia is improving its human
rights climate, it is unlikely to meet one condition imposed by Congress --
that it eliminate the country's total coca and opium poppy production by
2005. The Colombian government has a goal of eliminating half its drug crop
over the next five years, officials said. Eliminating all the cultivation,
the officials said, would require even more resources.

"Colombia confronts a drug emergency that directly affects the United
States," the White House said in a memorandum justifying the waiver. "In
spite of aggressive counter-drug efforts, coca cultivation in Colombia has
increased 140 percent over the last five years. This massive rate of
increase threatens to reverse the counter-drug successes in Peru and Bolivia."