COLOMBIA DOING BETTER ON RIGHTS, CLINTON SAYS

President Explains Why He Authorized Anti-Drug Aid

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton on Wednesday defended his decision to sign
a waiver freeing up $1.3 billion in anti-drug assistance for Colombia,
saying 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
Clinton, who signed the national security waiver 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.

Aid for training, reform

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 human rights record and ties to paramilitary groups.

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

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 record.

"There is no need or justification for waiving the conditions,'' said Sen.
Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., 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.''

Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn., an 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,'' Wellstone said.

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

2005 target

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.''