COLOMBIAN INDIANS DOUBT SAFETY OF SPRAYING CROPS

If the Yanacona Indians have their way, the Colombian government in coming
months may allow them to take out tens of thousands of poppy plants - the
source of heroin - with their own hands. Literally.

They want to be left alone to yank the flowers from the ground, instead of
having police airplanes spray their land with herbicides to combat drug
crops. The collateral damage to corn and other crops - as well as the
health risk to humans, say the Yanaconas - has long been an issue here. But
several recent events have put drug eradication by spraying on the front
burner. First, the looming prospect of a doubling of US antinarcotics aid
to Colombia - which means more spraying. Second, the latest round of peace
talks with rebels.

"No more contamination and destruction of the ecosystem with spraying," was
one of the demands made by Raul Reyes, a member of FARC (Revolutionary
Armed Forces of Colombia) negotiating team before the talks began on Sunday.

And earlier this month, an international conference for environmental
journalists held in Bogota focused heavily on narcotics trafficking.

"Everywhere there's been spraying, there have been complaints - hundreds of
them," says sociologist Ricardo Vargas, who spoke at the conference and is
the author of a study commissioned by the Netherlands' Transnational
Institute, soon to be published as a book titled "Spraying and Conflict."

The Yanacona's governor, Eider Meneses Papamija, says that the spraying
"goes against the health of our people," and links the practice to vomiting
by children, damaged corn and potato crops, and slow sales in milk, since
customers think the cows have eaten contaminated grass.

At the same time, he says his people are eager to get rid of the "cursed
flower" and return to traditional crops, while developing economic
alternatives to selling the poppy's milky latex for producing heroin.

This community lives in the central Andean range, a mountainous region
about 100 miles south of Cali. These are the kind of mountains the delicate
flower does well in, and Colombia, with three mountain chains snaking
through its territory, has been steadily supplying more of the world's
heroin in recent years.

According to current US government figures, poppy flowers and coca plants -
the source of cocaine - are now planted on more than 10 million acres of
Colombian soil. Col. Leonardo Gallego, head of the anti-narcotics division
of the National Police, said this month that the results of Colombia's
"First National Census on Illicit Crops" puts the total at closer to 7.8
million acres.

In fact, US antidrug funding to Colombia is now at an all-time high and may
be going higher. The $289 million authorized for this year put Colombia
third in military aid, behind Israel and Egypt.

A $1.5 billion aid package over three years is currently being debated in
Congress. Colombian officials say about 10 percent of the US aid is
currently used for spraying.

At least $10 million of the aid package will go toward the development of
ecologically sound eradication methods. But, according to a US
congressional aide, approximately $114 million of the package will be aimed
at increasing removal efforts, primarily by spraying.

The herbicide Roundup, produced by St. Louis-based Monsanto, has been a key
weapon in eradication efforts.

Luis Eduardo Parra, Colombia's chief environmental auditor for the
government's drug crop eradication program, says that Roundup and its main
ingredient, glyphosate, have undergone decades of safety studies. He adds
that the herbicide is widely used in the US for such commercial crops as corn.

Mr. Parra also says "the drug traffickers dupe the peasants and Indians
into believing that if they plant potatoes and beans together with coca or
poppy, then the police won't spray, and that if there's spraying, then they
can complain. This is simply not true."

But agronomist Elsa Nivia says the Yanacona claims may have a basis in
fact. She heads a nongovernmental organization in Cali that works to
"combat the use and abuse of pesticides and to promote ... sustainable
alternatives."

The environmental problems, says Ms. Nivia, often arise from such factors
as what solvent is mixed with Roundup before spraying, the dosage of
glyphosate used, and whether or not the herbicide drifts during spraying
onto neighboring lands.

The herbicide is dissolved in solvents ranging from water to kerosene to
diesel oil, say scientists. Roundup is "an environmentally friendly
herbicide ... but toxicity varies hugely according to the formulation and
dosage," says Albert Fischer, a former researcher at Colombia's
International Center for Tropical Agriculture.

Mr. Fischer also mentioned that spraying could "eliminate ancestral crops
... in some cases, thereby eliminating important genetic diversity."

Parra says the Yanacona's charges are "without basis ... and used to call
attention to themselves and to pressure the government in negotiations over
other needs, like more land."

But Colombia's minister of the interior says he's willing to give the
Yanaconas the benefit of the doubt and let them pull the poppies from their
land. But if they violate the trust, he says, the spraying will begin again.