MEXICO LEADER ATTACKS U.S. ACTS IN DRUG WAR

U.N. meeting reveals problems coordinating global fight against trafficking

UNITED NATIONS - Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo used a special U.N.
meeting, called to encourage international cooperation, to criticize
U.S. actions in the fight against drug trafficking.

He referred to a recent drug investigation by U.S. agents that many
Mexicans say illegally violated their border, straining bilateral relations.

"We must all respect the sovereignty of each nation," Mr. Zedillo told
a special session of the U.N. General Assembly, "so that no one . . .
feels entitled to violate other countries' laws for the sake of
enforcing its own."

U.S. officials didn't inform their Mexican counterparts about
"Operation Casablanca," a money laundering investigation that led to
the arrest last month of more than a dozen Mexican bankers.

The dispute also became a major topic for a private meeting between
Mr. Zedillo and President Clinton later in the day.

Mr. Zedillo has criticized the operation before. But that the
resulting bilateral tension spilled over here reflected the difficulty
faced by the United Nations in coordinating a proposed, worldwide
effort against drug trafficking.

More than two dozen heads of state came to New York for the opening of
a three-day U.N. special session, called to approve a 10-year plan to
sharply reduce illicit narcotics.

Mr. Clinton opened the session with a pledge to discourage U.S. drug
use. He said he would ask Congress to extend a media program aimed at
reducing youth drug consumption.

Congress approved $195 million for the program this year, money the
government is combining with private funds to buy ads aimed at
teenagers. If Congress agrees to extend the program, it would amount
to a five-year commitment of $2 billion in public and private money,
Mr. Clinton said.

He said the administration also would share more information overseas
through a satellite-transmitted "virtual university," on the Internet
and through a new drug fellowship program.

"Let us leave here determined to act together in a spirit of trust and
respect," he said.

The United States, however, has stopped short of saying that it will
help fund the ambitious U.N. anti-drug program. U.N. officials say it
might eliminate heroin and cocaine in 10 years by investing in new
jobs for the farmers who raise crops needed for their production.

Those alternative development programs remain controversial in
Congress. Critics say similar efforts in South America have failed to
significantly stem drug production there.

Some leaders, however, said that they need international aid in their
drug fights. Bolivia has undertaken an aggressive program to reduce
coca production when it also needs to be fighting poverty, Bolivian
President Hugo Banzer said.

"Each dollar we contribute to fight against trafficking comes at a
steep social cost," he said.

In his speech, Mr. Clinton called on U.N. members to quit blaming each
other for the drug problem. Drug-producing and drug-consuming
countries long have said that the other bears more
responsibility.

"Pointing fingers is distracting," Mr. Clinton said. "It does not
dismantle a single cartel, help a single addict, prevent a single
child from trying and perhaps dying from heroin."

Many leaders said lines are blurring between producing and consuming
countries. More people are consuming drugs in countries that produce
them and synthetic drugs, such as methamphetamines, are made in
Western countries that traditionally imported illegal narcotics.

"Synthetic drugs . . . make Western countries as responsible as the

rest," said Portuguese President Jorge Fernando Branco de Sampaio.

Mr. Zedillo, too, called for a new cooperative approach to fighting
drugs.

"It demands a global response," he said. "A response assumed by all
and shared by all."

But Mr. Zedillo still drew a distinction between consuming and
producing countries. He said countries worldwide don't do enough to
reduce demand. And he said nations like his own, seen as a production
and trafficking center, suffer the most from demand in other countries.

"It is our men and women who first die combating drug trafficking," he
said. "Our communities are the first to suffer from violence, and our
institutions are the first undermined by corruption."

Mr. Zedillo also criticized countries that unilaterally judge the
counter-drug efforts of others, another shot at the United States.

After delivering his remarks, Mr. Clinton stayed in the U.N.'s
assembly hall long enough to hear the speech of Mr. Zedillo, who was
next on the agenda.

The two met later for more than an hour at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel,
where Mr. Zedillo again said Mexico was investigating if U.S. agents
violated Mexican law in Operation Casablanca.

The Mexican president made it clear "they had come to no conclusion,"
said James Dobbins, a White House adviser on Latin American affairs.

He said the meeting between the two presidents was positive and
focused on preventing similar disputes in the future.

U.S. officials say they didn't tell Mexican counterparts of the
undercover sting because they wanted to protect undercover agents.

"It is not a matter of disrespect," Attorney General Janet Reno told
reporters Monday. "It is a matter of trying to . . . focus on those
who launder the money and launder the misery, while at the same time,
protecting the lives of the agents involved."

Cabinet members from the United States and Mexico will meet in
Washington later this week for an annual gathering. Among other
issues, they'll discuss how to better share information on ongoing
investigations, officials said.

"We'll just have to find a way to do this better in the future," U.S.
drug czar Barry McCaffrey said.

Checked-by: (trikydik)