COLOMBIA AID RESTRICTIONS EASED

U.S. Fears Threat Of Marxist Guerrillas Allied With Drug Traffickers

WASHINGTON The Clinton administration, fearful that Marxist guerrillas
allied with drug traffickers pose a growing threat to the government of
Colombia, is loosening restrictions on aid to the Colombian armed forces,
withheld for years because of the military's human rights record.

A unique agreement worked out last summer and heavily debated within the
administration permits U.S. aid, expected to total about $37 million in
fiscal 1998, to be used by the Colombian military for counterinsurgency
activities as part of a larger program to fight drug trafficking. The aid
can only be used in a specifically defined geographic area called ``the
box'' whose exact boundaries are classified but which covers roughly the
southern half of the country where the alliance between the guerrillas and
the drug traffickers is clearest.

Materiel Aid

The aid consists principally of spare parts, communications equipment,
ammunition and maintenance for helicopters, boats and vehicles.

``The grip of the government on the territory in the countryside is
loosening considerably,'' said a senior administration official in an
unusually blunt assessment of the growing guerrilla threat in Latin
America's oldest democracy. ``About 50 percent of the territory is not
under government control, and there is a growing nexus between the narcos
and many fronts of the guerrillas. The government is in trouble.''

The policy is an attempt to walk through a policy minefield. Critics say
the move brings the United States closer to a vicious, multisided
political conflict that has lasted decades and cost thousands of lives.

In recent years, the Colombian army and the rightwing paramilitary groups
it sponsors have been implicated in scores of civilian massacres,
disappearances and cases of torture, few of which have ever been
prosecuted. Consequently, Washington policy makers wrangled over how to aid
the military in fighting drug trafficking by the guerrillas without
allowing the aid to be used primarily for counterinsurgency efforts.

$6 Million Question

The situation is further complicated by strained U.S.Colombian relations
arising from strong evidence that President Ernesto Samper received some $6
million from drug traffickers to finance his 1994 presidential campaign.

In addition, leaders of the armybacked paramilitary groups have been
implicated in largescale drug trafficking, yet have not been singled out
as targets of the antidrug efforts in the same way that the guerrillas have.

For the past two years, the Clinton administration has failed to certify
Colombia as being cooperative in antidrug efforts. The decertification led
to 1995's formal cutoff of U.S. aid to the military, although it had
virtually been stopped since the late 1980s. In June, President Clinton
signed a waiver allowing aid to resume if certain conditions were agreed to.

In an effort to stanch the deteriorating military situation but also reduce
the chance of U.S. aid being used in human rights abuses, the U.S.
government entered into a unique arrangement with the Colombian government.

Numerous Restrictions

Only Colombian army units evaluated by the United States can use U.S.
equipment in the designated area, according to an Aug. 1 memorandum of
understanding between the two nations. The United States can monitor use of
the aid, and the Colombians must issue a certification every six months
that any suspected human rights violations are being investigated and
prosecuted.

Barry McCaffrey, the Clinton administration antidrugpolicy chief, said
the renewal of aid was justified because the guerrillas ``are walking away
from ideological struggle and toward criminal action. . . . They are a
tremendously ferocious threat to Colombian democracy.''

Gen. Manuel Jose Bonett, commander of the Colombian armed forces, said in a
recent interview that he welcomes the change in policy.

``We are carrying out a war that benefits the security of the United
States,'' Bonett said. ``The least we can ask for is more support. . . .
(U.S. aid) is important, it is a beginning. It is important the door was
opened. Next year it is possible the level of aid will be even higher.''

U.S. and Colombian intelligence assessments show that the country's two
largest guerrilla groups the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
(FARC) and the National Liberation Army number about 15,000 armed
fighters, up about 40 percent over the past two years. This year, for the
first time, the U.S. State Department listed both groups as terrorist
organizations.