CLINTON BLAMED FOR HEROIN CRISIS

WASHINGTON (AP) - House International Relations Committee chairman Benjamin
Gilman said today the Clinton administration's failure to get
high-performance helicopters to Colombia is "directly responsible for the
massive heroin crisis" on the U.S. East Coast.

Gilman, R-N.Y., commented in testimony prepared for a hearing of a House
Government Reform subcommittee. A copy of his remarks was made available to
The Associated Press.

"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 said.

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."