U.S. OKs $50 million for Colombia drug war

Aid hinges on troops' respecting human rights

BY DIANA JEAN SCHEMO

New York Times

BOGOTÁ, Colombia Deepening its involvement in a country it has held at
arm's length for years, the United States has approved sending more than
$50 million in equipment to help Colombia's military fight guerrillas
involved in drug trafficking in the south.

The aid was granted after the military promised to improve its protection
of human rights. Colombia is grappling with increasingly violent rebels who
have formed alliances with drug traffickers across the country, especially
in the south.

While the United States stipulated that the aid, approved this summer, be
used solely to fight drug trafficking, the commander of the Colombian armed
forces says the materiel all considered to be nonlethal could be
used to fight insurgents anywhere in the area identified by U.S. officials,
essentially the southern half of the country.

In an interview here, the commander, Gen. José Manuel Bonett, said the aid
could be used against guerrillas in the zone whether or not they are
involved in drugs. ``It's the same organization, and everyone in it is
responsible,'' he said. ``You can't say this guerrilla front is good and
this one is bad.''

Approval for the aid came through special presidential authority and is
contingent on confirmation that the units getting the materiel have not
been accused of violating human rights. The confirmation is to be provided
by the Colombian military.

Gen. Barry McCaffrey, architect of the White House antidrug efforts, who
visited here this week, said the aid did not represent a policy change.
Colombia would normally be ineligible for military aid because President
Clinton has ruled that it is not fighting drugs with vigor.

In September 1996 and again last summer, Clinton invoked special authority
to provide equipment and supplies for antidrug efforts in Colombia. He
also waived a ban on military sales on the ground that it was important to
the United States' national security. But that aid was also contingent on
an agreement by the Colombian police and armed forces to observe human rights.

The police agreed to such conditions quickly. But the military only
accepted the conditions in August.

The accord says the aid is to go only to areas ``characterized by the
highest concentration of counternarcotics activity.'' It also stipulates
procedures by which the United States is supposed to monitor the military's
use of the aid.

But the agreement raises the difficult question of arming a military well
known for abusing human rights, especially when the materiel might be used
to put down insurgency among the military's enemies rather than to fight
drugs.

McCaffrey said to reporters here, ``Let there be no doubt: We are not
taking part in counterguerrilla operations.''

Yet critics of the deal abound, and they include some Clinton
administration officials. ``It is very difficult to put your finger on
which guerrillas are doing what,'' one State Department official said.

The State Department, the National Security Council and the Drug
Enforcement Administration all advised McCaffrey against visiting Colombia
and shaking hands with President Ernesto Samper. Samper was accused of
accepting $6 million in campaign contributions from drug traffickers, but
he was cleared by the Colombian Congress.

But speaking to American reporters Monday night, he said Washington needed
to rebuild its relationship with Bogotá before presidential elections in
seven months.

The supplies to be sent to Colombia, from Pentagon and other government
stocks, are to include UH1H Huey helicopters, C26 surveillance planes,
ammunition for assault rifles, utility vehicles, small boats and
navigational equipment. And Congress is debating whether to give $50
million more to the police in the form of three Black Hawk helicopters.

U.S. military assistance to Colombia ended in 1994, after the General
Accounting Office found that such aid had gone to units accused of
violating human rights and that it was being used to fight guerrillas
instead of drug traffickers. The GAO also said the conditions for the aid,
which resemble those being applied now, had been ignored.

The U.S. ambassador to Colombia, Myles Frechette, said he was confident the
U.S. Embassy could monitor the army's rights record.