U.S. CERTIFIES COLOMBIA IN DRUGS FIGHT

BOGOTA, Colombia -- After being ostracized for four years, Colombia on
Friday was certified by the United States as a cooperative partner in
the war on drugs, a decision that reflects vastly improved ties
between the two nations.

Although it remains the top supplier of cocaine and heroin to the
United States, Colombia received a full stamp of approval from the
State Department in its annual assessment of drug-producing and
drug-transit nations.

Colombian officials said the certification removes a shameful stigma
and acknowledges the nation's commitment to stanch the flow of drugs.

"This is a recognition of the sacrifice and the fight that the good
people and institutions of Colombia have made to recuperate the
dignity of our country," said Foreign Minister Guillermo Fernandez de
Soto.

However, such high spirits were dampened by the release earlier on
Friday of the State Department's annual human rights report.

It described a pattern of savage abuses by Colombia's security forces,
left-wing guerrilla groups and right-wing paramilitary organizations
that are waging a 35-year civil war.

Drug certification was closely tied to the election last year of
Colombian President Andres Pastrana.

From 1995 to 1998, Colombia was blacklisted by the State Department
for being uncooperative in the drug war. Washington imposed economic
sanctions against Colombia in two of those years.

Such troubles coincided with the rule of then-President Ernesto
Samper, who won the 1994 election with the help of $6.1 million from
the Cali drug cartel. U.S. officials considered his administration to
be corrupt and beholden to drug traffickers.

Pastrana, who took office in August, has visited Washington twice and
has endorsed a controversial, U.S.-funded aerial fumigation program
targeting coca and opium crops, the raw materials for cocaine and heroin.

"We are very gratified by the signs of progress demonstrated by the
new government," Attorney General Janet Reno said in Washington.

"The Pastrana administration carried out a vigorous coca- and
opium-eradication campaign and gave strong proof of a new commitment
at the highest level of government to defeat the drug syndicates,"
said Frank Loy, undersecretary of state for global affairs. "This new
direction, we believe, meets the requirement for full
certification."

Last year, Colombian police crop dusters poisoned about 150,000 acres
of coca. Nevertheless, the amount of land under coca cultivation
increased by 28 percent, according to CIA estimates.

Loy said the jump reflected a shift in coca production from Peru,
where government crackdowns have been more successful than those
launched by Bogota, to Colombia.

The drug war is especially difficult in Colombia because vast swaths
of territory where drug crops flourish are under the control of
guerrillas and paramilitaries. Hundreds of police and army troops have
been killed in the anti-narcotics effort.

In January, Pastrana opened peace talks with the country's largest
guerrilla group.

The State Department's drug certification report said that winning the
war against narcotics in Colombia could hinge on the outcome of the
peace negotiations.

"In the long term, a successful peace process could potentially break
the linkage between the guerrilla groups and the narcotics
traffickers," according to the State Department report.

In addition to fumigating coca and opium crops, Colombian authorities
last year confiscated a record 50 tons of cocaine and arrested more
than 50 major drug traffickers.

The country's police and army officials are working closely with U.S.
anti-drug agents and will receive $289 million in U.S. military aid
this year.

By contrast, Colombia has failed in human rights, according to the
State Department's 49-page report on the country's 1998 rights practices.

From 2,000 to 3,000 people were killed in assassinations and massacres
by paramilitaries and guerrillas, according to the report. At least
six human rights monitors and 13 journalists were slain.

Other problems cited by the report included overcrowded prisons; child
labor; sexual abuse; "social cleansing" of street children,
prostitutes and homosexuals; and a backlogged judiciary that gained
convictions in just 3 percent of reported crimes.

G. Alan Robison Executive Director Drug Policy Forum of Texas Houston,
Texas 713-784-3196; FAX 713-784-0283