COLOMBIAN RIGHTS GROUPS OPPOSE US ANTIDRUG PLAN

BOGOTA (AP) Colombian human rights groups have rejected offers to take part
in a US-financed plan to fight drug production, saying it envisions spending
too much on the military and not enough on social problems.

A coalition of rights groups turned down US appeals to support President
Andres Pastrana's "Plan Colombia," which is being partially funded with $1.3
billion in aid from the United States.

US Undersecretary of State Thomas Pickering said last week that the
anti-drug plan would rely on Colombian human rights and other
non-governmental organizations for advice on how to spend millions in aid
money.

But representatives from 37 human rights and other non-governmental
organizations on Friday signed a statement in which they rejected Pastrana's
initiative.

"We have ethical and political difficulties receiving aid from this
program," said Fernan Gonzalez, director of the Jesuit-run Center for
Investigations and Popular Education. "Under these conditions, we would not
accept the resources the program will provide."

The group's statement said the aid "will not resolve Colombia's drug
problems" because it assumes Colombia's "national security is based
exclusively on a strategy to fight drugs and not on this country's social
and armed conflict."

The groups faulted Plan Colombia because its projected $7.5 billion budget
earmarks a little less than $2 billion for social and economic development
in areas where the economy depends on cocaine production - not enough, they
say.

A week ago, about 100 elite US troops arrived in Colombia as part of the
plan and began training an antinarcotics battalion near guerrilla territory.

Most of the US funds will go toward providing 60 combat helicopters, which
are to be used to ferry US-trained troops into drug-producing areas where
leftist rebels and right-wing paramilitary groups are active. The troops are
to seize the areas and allow planes to destroy drug crops by aerial spraying
without being shot down.

The United States is dedicating $51 million to try to strengthen Colombia's
democracy and human rights, $13 million to improve Colombia's judicial
system and $3 million to further the peace process.