GILMAN BLAMES ADMINISTRATION FOR HEROIN 'CRISIS'

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Republican lawmakers said today Colombian
"narco-guerrillas" are winning the drug war, blaming what they called
the Clinton administration's "abysmal" record of delivering assistance
to the Colombian police.

"Despite five years of congressional pleas for assistance to Colombia,
countless hearings and intense congressional efforts, resources
approved by Congress have failed to be provided to Colombia," said
Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., chairman of a House Government Reform
subcommittee.

A subcommittee hearing chaired by Mica on the Colombian drug problem
split largely along party lines with Democrats responding to GOP
charges of weakness by arguing that U.S. resources would be better
spent on reducing demand than by focusing on interdiction.

Rep. Janice Schakowsky, D-Ill., said there has been no net reduction
in drug flows from Colombia despite outlays of $625 million in recent
years.

"Why should we believe that investing more in this plan will achieve a
different result?" she asked.

Rep. Benjamin Gilman, R-N.Y., who chairs the House International
Relations Committee, testified that the administration's failure to
get high-performance helicopters to Colombia is "directly responsible
for the massive heroin crisis" on the U.S. East Coast.

"The U.S. response under the current administration to both the
increasing drug threat and the growing insurgency menace in Colombia
has been benign neglect at best and gross negligence at worst," Gilman
asserted.

He said Congress appropriated funds in 1996 to purchase over 30 new
long-range, high-altitude helicopters for the Colombian National
Police for eradication of opium poppy fields. But, he said, only two
have been delivered.

Gilman added that heroin-related deaths and overdoses in the United
States "could have and should have been eradicated at the source" years ago.

The drug issue will be high on the agenda for Under Secretary of State
Thomas Pickering, who is planning to meet with Colombian President
Andres Pastrana on Tuesday in Bogota. Also on the agenda will be
Colombia's increasingly powerful leftist insurgency.

The administration denies it has been ignoring the drug
problem.

Colombia ranks third on the list of aid recipients with $289 million
earmarked for counter-drug activity this year. Barry McCaffrey, the
White House drug control chief, said recently an additional $1 billion
is needed because current efforts are falling short. He said the
situation has reached "emergency" proportions.

The drug war also is costing the United States in other ways: five
U.S. soldiers were killed two weeks ago when their U.S. Army spy plane
crashed into a Colombian mountainside while on a counter-narcotics
mission. Two Colombian Air Force officers also were killed.

Another component of the counterdrug effort is training by U.S.
Special Forces of a 1,000-member Colombian anti-narcotics battalion,
which will be ready for duty toward the end of the year. Colombian
officials are hopeful the battalion can neutralize guerrillas who
finance their operations by protecting coca fields. This would allow
the police to carry out fumigation and eradication programs.

Bernard Aronson, who served as former President Bush's chief
policy-maker, said that despite these efforts, neither President
Clinton nor Secretary of State Madeleine Albright "has paid sustained
attention to Colombia."