PASTRANA COOLS TO COCA POLICY

BOGOTA, Colombia -- President Andres Pastrana marked his distance from U.S.
anti-drug policy on Thursday, asserting that U.S.-financed aerial
eradication of coca ``has not worked'' and is simply pushing peasants deeper
into the Amazon jungle.

Pastrana called on Washington to spend more on development to lure
coca-growing farmers out of the drug trade and less on forcible eradication.

Turning a deaf ear to Pastrana, the U.S. House appeared within hours of
approving an omnibus spending bill that included nearly $160 million in
aid --including 40 helicopters -- to beef up Colombia's drug eradication
program.

In far-ranging remarks at a breakfast with foreign correspondents, Pastrana
provided details of upcoming peace talks with the Revolutionary Armed Forces
of Colombia (FARC), the hemisphere's largest and oldest insurgency. The
talks began Nov. 7 in a huge region of jungle that will be cleared of almost
all military and police presence. The peace negotiations will last through
Feb. 7.

Sounding optimistic about the talks, the first with FARC leaders since 1992,
Pastrana said, ``I believe there is a desire on the part of the guerrillas
to make peace.''

Pastrana affirmed that the legendary leader of the FARC, Manuel Marulanda,
says the insurgency is willing to end its practice of protecting coca
fields, for which it is believed to earn hundreds of millions of dollars a
year.

U.S. officials say 70 percent of FARC units are involved in the cocaine
trade, through protecting coca fields or processing laboratories.

`Get the resources'

``They have said, `We are willing to eradicate the crops,' '' Pastrana said.

``We said, `Let's start now' and they said, `Sure. Get the resources and we
are willing to do it.' ''

Pastrana, a conservative former mayor of Bogota who came to office Aug. 7,
has made seeking peace with Colombia's two major guerrilla groups a top
priority. The two groups have grown in strength and now present a threat to
the country's stability.

Emphasizing environmental and development concerns, Pastrana said he is
opposed to a U.S. counter-narcotics policy with an overarching focus on the
use of fumigation planes to drop herbicide on coca fields in the eastern
savannas and jungles.

Washington has pushed aggressive spraying, and by Sept. 30, aircraft had
fumigated 131,232 acres of coca, more than in all of 1997.

`Environment being destroyed'

Pastrana said peasant farmers are pushing and expanding their coca fields
deeper into the Amazon basin, outpacing the aerial spraying, and unwilling
to quit planting coca unless the government launches massive spending to
develop the region, making other crops profitable.

`The figures that we are seeing clearly demonstrate to us that it [aerial
fumigation] has not worked,'' Pastrana said. ``When we go in the last four
years from 40,000 to 80,000 hectares [98,840 to 197,680 acres] of coca,
something bad is happening. And if you add to this . . . that the
environment is being destroyed, clearly we have to look for an absolutely
different policy.''

McCaffrey defends spraying

White House drug policy director Barry McCaffrey, speaking in a telephone
interview, said aerial spraying must remain a tool that Colombia uses to
fight coca.

``Sixty percent of all the drugs that enter the United States start from or
pass through Colombia,'' McCaffrey said. ``There has to be a continued
willingness to confront this threat to the hemisphere, and aerial
eradication has to be a part of it.''

On Capitol Hill, new aid for Colombia under the spending bill includes $40
million for 34 UH-1H helicopters, $96 million for six Black Hawk
helicopters, $6 million to protect jungle anti-narcotics bases, $2 million
to rebuild the Miraflores jungle base overrun by FARC rebels Aug. 3-4, and
at least $15.2 million in other assistance.

Rebel cooperation expected

While not rejecting fumigation aid, Pastrana made clear that he believes
FARC leaders will collaborate with his administration in replacing coca with
other crops if enough money can be raised to bring roads and development to
Colombia's vast Amazon and Orinoco regions.

``The guerrillas have said they are interested, so we are going to work with
them and we will design [eradication] plans with them to see what results we
get,'' he said.

Pastrana said soldiers in the five townships comprising the
16,266-square-mile demilitarized zone (DMZ) in Caqueta and Meta states had
begun leaving the region Thursday. Only a few army administrative personnel
will remain at an army base in San Vicente del Caguan, 180 miles south of
Bogota, where the peace talks will unfold over three months.

Civil units to supplant police

Since police also must leave the region, elected mayors in the DMZ will
deputize civilians to enforce the law, said Victor G. Ricardo, Pastrana's
envoy to the peace talks.

No agenda has been established for the peace talks, Pastrana said. Nor has
any arrangement been made to meet a FARC demand to swap imprisoned
guerrillas held by the government for captured soldiers and police in the
hands of rebels.

The FARC retains some 245 police and soldiers, while Colombian prisons hold
about 705 guerrillas, some of them from insurgencies other than the FARC.

``We are going to arrive at the peace table. We will see what happens. This
is what's most important. In 90 days, we will know if this desire [for peace
by the guerrillas] exists,'' Pastrana said.

Checked-by: Don Beck