WAGING PEACE IN COLOMBIA

Last June, Andres Pastrana won the presidency of Colombia by pledging to
pursue an end to its 35-year-old civil war. He has courageously stuck with
the peace process in the face of setbacks. He has also made some progress in
the related task of controlling the armed forces, but military pressure has
forced him to back off some of the most important measures. Mr. Pastrana
needs more resolve, and steadier support from a Clinton Administration whose
policies have at times undercut him.

Colombia's two Marxist guerrilla groups have resorted to kidnapping,
extortion and, in the case of one group, taxing local cocaine traffickers
and defending coca-growing and rudimentary refining by peasants. Right-wing
paramilitary organizations massacre civilians and engage in major cocaine
trafficking. Some top army officers collaborate with the paramilitaries.
This year paramilitaries have increased their killings, and issued a blanket
death threat against human rights workers.

Mr. Pastrana has made peace the center of his agenda. His first efforts to
talk with the larger guerrilla group's leaders were rebuffed, raising doubts
about the group's interest in peace. But now he has met with the top
guerrilla leader. Formal negotiations will begin soon.

Peace requires arrest of the paramilitary leaders, but army officials with
paramilitary links block this. Last month, for the first time, the
Government dismissed two generals for such ties -- a good start, but other
such officers remain on duty. The Government also needs to put more clout
behind a bill stalled in Congress by military opposition that would reform
the military's penal code, which now allows officers near-total impunity.

The Clinton Administration has given important support to the peace talks
and the promotion of human rights. But it has undercut both through its
growing involvement with the military. Colombia is now the third-largest
recipient of American security aid after Israel and Egypt, and there are
around 250 American military trainers there. The money is supposed to be
used for the drug war, even though Colombia's military attack on drugs has
failed, with coca production rising 28 percent last year. But the arms will
also be turned against the guerrillas.

Washington's link with the military has turned American officials into
apologists and supporters of a brutal and undemocratic group, and encourages
army officers to continue their defiance of Mr. Pastrana's Government. It is
the civilians, well intentioned but weak, who need backing.