DON'T AID COLOMBIAN RIGHTS ABUSERS, U.S. URGED

WASHINGTON -- An international monitoring group urged the Clinton
administration Wednesday to ensure that its proposed aid package for
Colombia does not finance military units linked to human rights abuses.

The plea by Human Rights Watch was included in the group's report alleging
that the Colombian military is continuing to support paramilitary units
blamed in attacks on civilians.

The report was delivered to Secretary of State Madeleine Albright two days
before the State Department is scheduled to release its annual compilation
of human rights abuses around the world.

A year ago, the State Department reported that Colombian authorities
committed "numerous, serious violations of human rights throughout the
year."

In a letter to Albright, Human Rights Watch expressed concern that the $1.6
billion proposal to aid Colombia's fight against drug production does not
require "clear, measurable steps to break links between the military and
paramilitary groups."

"When an aid package of this size is debated in Washington, it's crucial
that the facts be clear," Jose Miguel Vivanco, director of the group's
Americas Division, said in the letter.

The report says paramilitary groups responsible for human rights violations
receive support from several Colombian army brigades, including some
operating in areas slated to receive U.S. aid. The Clinton administration
proposes funneling 80 percent of the aid to Colombia's military.

Human Rights Watch asserts that the military has supplied paramilitary
groups with information that led to harassment and attacks against human
rights workers, government investigators and civilians involved in peace
talks with guerrilla groups.

"The Colombian military should not get a clean bill of health until it
severs ties to paramilitaries," Vivanco said. "U.S. assistance should not be
provided either to those who directly commit human rights abuses or to those
who effectively contract others to carry out abuses on their behalf and with
their assistance."

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Pickering told a Senate committee
Tuesday that army units connected with human rights violations would not
receive U.S. aid.

Administration officials said any Colombian organization to receive aid --
if it is approved by Congress -- would be screened for human rights
violations.

As currently proposed, the administration's aid package complies with a
congressional prohibition against financially aiding countries with human
rights abuses unless the government is taking steps to curb the problem.

During a visit to Washington last month, Colombian President Andres Pastrana
told reporters that U.S. pressure would not help his country's effort to
improve its human rights record.

"We are not going to respect human rights because the United States Congress
imposes conditions on the aid," Pastrana said. "We are going to do it
because it is the policy of my government."

Paramilitary groups in Colombia go back to the 1960s when the country began
arming civilians to help combat insurgent guerrillas, in part on the
recommendation from the U.S. military and CIA.

Today, human rights groups routinely denounce paramilitary organizations for
atrocities committed in the course of fighting guerrillas.

White House drug czar Barry McCaffrey, in Bogota to promote the aid package,
said Wednesday that complaints against the military have "dwindled to near
zero." He said the police and army have a better image in Colombia than the
Catholic Church -- something surveys in major cities have suggested.

Colombian military leaders called the new accusations unfounded and
Pastrana, addressing the nation's governors, vowed stronger military efforts
against paramilitary "barbarism, cruelty and cowardice."

McCaffrey said the military component of the U.S. aid package was necessary
to clear a path through the rebels so that police can fumigate illegal drug
crops.

But he stressed that one-fifth of the funds support human rights and justice
reforms, as well as providing loans to help poor peasants grow legal crops
instead of coca or opium poppies.

New CIA estimates show a 20 percent increase in cocaine production and a 23
percent rise in heroin production in Colombia last year. U.S. officials say
the South American country now supplies 90 percent of the world's cocaine
and the majority of the heroin sold in the United States.