MORE DRUG AID FOR COLOMBIA LIKELY

WASHINGTON -- For Colombia to get fresh U.S. drug-fighting aid, President
Clinton probably will have to exempt it from fine print that ties the money
to improvements in its human rights record.

Though no decision has been made, administration officials are signaling
that human rights provisions in the Colombia package will not delay the
aid, even though the State Department rates Colombia's rights record as poor.

"You don't hold up the major objective to achieve the minor," said Brad
Hittle, an official with the White House drug office.

Human rights advocates, who pressed to get the language into the Colombia
aid legislation, are braced for the setback of a presidential waiver.

"If they want the aid to go -- and there's a lot of pressure for it to go
- -- the only way they can do that is by invoking the waiver," said Andrew
Miller of Amnesty International USA.

Hittle said the administration wants to comply with "the spirit of the law"
and work with Colombia on human rights, but the top priority is "to get the
aid flowing" to help Colombian authorities stop violence by guerrillas and
paramilitaries.

He said the aid includes about $50 million for human rights programs.

Colombia is receiving the bulk of a $1.3 billion aid package aimed mostly
at helping it wrest control of cocaine-producing regions from leftist
guerrillas and, to a lesser extent, right-wing paramilitaries protecting
the drug trade. Colombia is the world's leading producer of cocaine and a
growing supplier of heroin.

Rights groups have opposed the aid, fearing it will escalate the conflict
and help paramilitaries tied to the Colombian army. The paramilitaries are
accused of being the worst violators of rights in Colombia's civil war,
torturing and killing civilians they believe linked to guerrillas.