AS FUNDS LANGUISH IN SENATE, DRUG WAR FALTERS IN COLOMBIA

WASHINGTON - U.S.-backed anti-drug programs in Colombia are running out of
money and have effectively been halted as Congress delays emergency funding
for military training and other activities, senior Clinton administration
officials say.

Anticipating that Congress would quickly pass a $1.3 billion supplemental
appropriation requested on an emergency basis in January, President Bill
Clinton's administration began expanding the anti-drug effort early this
year and increased spending. But the funding package has been held up in
the Senate for months and now appears unlikely to move forward until at
least midsummer.

In the meantime, according to officials seeking to emphasize the urgency of
the problem, leftist guerrillas and rightist paramilitary forces involved
in the drug trade have stepped up deployment and strengthened their
defenses in the main regions where coca, the basic ingredient of cocaine,
is grown. Instead of leveling off, as the administration had hoped,
production of cocaine is likely to increase this year.

Among the results of the funding shortfall cited by officials:

- - Fumigation flights against coca, a centerpiece of the anti-drug effort,
have been scaled back or stopped in many areas. Fumigation of opium
poppies, used to make heroin, has been stopped.

- - A special, Colombian Army antidrug battalion, trained at U.S. expense
last year, has yet to undertake its first mission because the helicopters
it is supposed to use are not available.

- - A second 1,000-man battalion is "doing jumping jacks" while waiting for
U.S. Army Special Forces trainers for whom no funding has been approved,
one official said.

"Things are worsening," another official said. "They are not static. Every
week we are losing ground."

These descriptions of a situation spinning out of control mark a new tack
for administration officials. While warning that conditions were grave,
they previously reassured Congress that their proposed remedy would begin
to turn the tide in Colombia and, some years from now, stem the flood of
drugs into the United States. That was enough to get the supplemental
appropriation through the House of Representatives in March and send it to
the Senate.

But some senators remain opposed to the package, holding that the Colombian
military should be ineligible for aid because of human rights abuses, that
the plan itself is poorly conceived and that anti-drug money is better
spent on prevention efforts at home.