PEACE IS COLOMBIA'S BEST HOPE

MOMENTUM IS BUILDING for negotiations to end Latin America's
longest-running civil war. Today, Colombia -- after decades of violence and
instability -- has its best chance of peace in a generation. The process
will likely be long and arduous. The role of the United States will be
crucial.

Colombia's new president, Conservative Andres Pastrana, has made peace his
priority. He has met with guerrilla leaders who convinced him they were
serious about ending the conflict. He is supported in his quest by the
majority of Colombians, who are weary of a conflict that has displaced a
million people, fueled serious human rights abuses, and torn the country's
social fabric.

U.S. policy toward Colombia is at a crossroads. One road points to
continued military strategies to stem the flow of drugs -- Colombia is the
source of 80 percent of the cocaine and heroin entering the United States.
The other looks to negotiations accompanied by increased human rights
protections as the best framework for addressing Colombia's myriad
problems, including the question of drug production and export.

The first strategy, pushed by conservatives in Congress, plays to
legitimate American fears of the continued flow of drugs into the United
States, but offers simplistic solutions to a complex problem. More military
aid to Colombia and a campaign of eradicating drug crops, they argue, will
stanch the flow of illegal drugs into the United States. But this approach
has struck out.

Hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S military aid and more than a decade
of drug-eradication programs have not stopped illegal-crop acreage from
growing twelve-fold -- to 250,000 acres -- since 1985. Increased
militarization of the drug war has fomented social unrest and human rights
violations, and fueled support for the guerrillas. Instead, the ``peace
track'' offers the prospect of a comprehensive solution to Colombia's
complex problems and of addressing the major concern of the United States
- -- the flow of drugs. U.S. ``drug czar'' Barry McCaffrey recently argued
for a long-term strategy to bolster democratic institutions in Colombia
rather than throwing military hardware and money at the problem. Yet that
is precisely what we have been doing, at the rate of $100 million a year.
Hard liners in Congress and the Pentagon urge more of the same.

None of Colombia's problems can be dealt with in isolation. Negotiations
offer the best prospect for: rebuilding state institutions, particularly
law enforcement and the judicial system; regenerating the economy and
offering small farmers alternatives to drug cultivation; and,
reincorporating guerrillas into society.

There are precedents for overcoming equally bitter conflicts in El
Salvador, in Guatemala, in Bosnia and in Northern Ireland. No other nation
or institution is as crucial to peace in Colombia as the United States.
Upping the military ante, threatening the Colombian government with cutting
off its aid for demilitarizing remote rural areas, will only undercut
long-term U.S. interests.

The United States government should send a clear message: our values and
core interests are best served by a resolution of the central political,
economic and social issues that fuel Colombia's armed conflict. We must
support immediate steps to strengthen human rights protections -- which
should not wait for a final peace agreement.

Pushing for more military aid and the forced destruction of crops is the
best recipe for more violence and upheaval, growing human rights abuses,
and the continued scourge of illicit drugs entering the United States.
Peace will be a long, hard road. But it is the only viable way out of the
quagmire in Colombia.

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski