SENATE PANEL OKS COLOMBIA AID

$1 Billion Would Fuel Drug War

WASHINGTON -- The Senate Appropriations Committee on Tuesday approved
a $1 billion emergency aid package that the Clinton administration
considers a crucial weapon in Colombia's fight against a booming
narcotics trade that threatens its stability.

As approved by the committee, the aid is contained in two spending
bills that will fund foreign operations and military construction next
year, and amounts to nearly 25 percent less than the $1.3 billion the
administration had requested.

Most of the difference is the result of a decision by the Senate panel
to scrap plans to send 30 Black Hawk helicopters to help Colombia's
military fight narcotrafficking that funds violent right wing
paramilitary groups and left wing guerrillas.

The committee replaced the Black Hawks with smaller, less expensive
UH-1H ``Huey'' helicopters. Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., one of Capitol
Hill's strongest supporters of the Colombia aid package, said he hoped
the full Senate would ``act quickly to help restore the societal and
economic conditions on which a stable Colombia and Latin America
depend.'' HOUSE ACTION

In March, the House approved a $1.7 billion Colombian aid package as
part of a $13 billion emergency spending bill that included funding
for peacekeepers in Kosovo and aid to U.S. victims of drought and
hurricanes, but Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., rejected
the idea of an emergency bill in the Senate.

Bob Weiner, spokesman for White House drug czar Gen. Barry McCaffrey,
downplayed the significance of the Senate's decision to replace the
high-powered Black Hawk helicopters with Hueys.

``Some [helicopters] fly higher, some fly faster,'' Weiner said.
``What's important is that the Senate took a significant step forward
in the process.''

The committee also adopted several measures proposed by Sen. Patrick
Leahy, D-Vt., aimed at promoting better human rights practices in
Colombia's military. It approved $25 million for human rights programs
in Colombia's police and judiciary, $10 million for a Colombian
witness protection program and $1.5 million to staff the U.S. Embassy
in Bogota with human rights monitors.

TOUGHER CONDITIONS

The panel toughened conditions on U.S. aid to Colombia's military,
requiring officers suspected of human rights abuses or of
collaboration with paramilitary squads to be tried in civilian -- not
military -- courts and removed from active duty. Current restrictions
bar military units charged with human rights violations from receiving
U.S. aid.

A separate proposal by Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, to send $5 million to
nongovernmental organizations in Colombia trying to remove child
soldiers from the ranks of the nation's guerrilla movements, was also
approved by the committee.

In addition, the committee substantially boosted the amount of money
Colombia's Andean neighbors would receive for their own
drug-interdiction efforts.

Lisa Haugaard, legislative coordinator for the Latin American Working
Group, a nonprofit advocacy group, called the Senate's efforts ``a
much better package'' because of the human rights provisions.

Under Secretary of State Thomas Pickering and Gen. Charles Wilhelm,
head of U.S. Southern Command, will head a U.S. government delegation
that will travel to Bogota on Thursday to discuss implementation of
the aid package with Colombian officials.

But President Andres Pastrana's government may not receive those funds
for several months. If the full Senate approves the package, as is
expected in the next few weeks, differences with the House must be
resolved before the it is sent to President Clinton.

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