SAN FRANCISCO (Reuter) The U.S. drug czar is defending
Washington's decision to decertify Colombia as an ally in the
drug war this year, saying ``Colombia is killing our children
with heroin production.''

``We think we did the right thing,'' Gen. Barry McCaffrey,
director of the White House Office of National Drug Control
Policy, said Wednesday referring to the U.S. decision in
February to deny Colombia certification for the second year.

Washington cited ``rampant corruption'' at top levels of the
Colombian government as the reason for its action.

In a speech to the Commonwealth Club of California in San
Francisco, McCaffrey said he did not know what the future was of
Washington's annual procedure of ``certifying'' nations as
allies in the fight against drugs.

``I don't know where certification is going,'' he said.

He said he suspected the best approach was not ``binational
accusatory relations'' but multinational cooperation and that
was what the Clinton administration would try to promote.

``Let's look at this problem as a common threat to the
global community, as a common threat to our children ... We
ought to be working as partners, not as antagonists,'' he said.

McCaffrey was responding to a question from a member of the
audience who asked what was the point of continuing the U.S.
policy of certification. The questioner said Colombia was
decertified even though it had jailed top drug traffickers and
carried out an extensive drug cropspraying program.

McCaffrey defended the decision to decertify Colombia,
although he said it was a ``painful approach.''

``The facts of the matter are that Colombia increased
cocaine production by 32 percent last year. That's a fact. In
the last five years Colombia has gone from zero to 63.5 metric
tons of opium production,'' McCaffrey said.

McCaffrey said he believed most heroin still came from Asia
and the Middle East, ``but Colombia is killing our children with
heroin production.''

He praised several Colombian officials, but said:
''Unfortunately we watched the evidence put in front of the
Colombian people that President (Ernesto) Samper is complicit in
the international crime cartels in that he accepted millions of
dollars to win that election.''

Washington has accused Samper of accepting $6 million from
drug traffickers to finance his 1994 presidential campaign.
Samper was absolved by the Colombian Congress last year of any
wrongdoing in connection with his campaign finances.

Speaking of Mexico, which did win certification this year,
McCaffrey said: ``It's our view right now that their national
leadership is committed to confronting the (drug) threat.''

McCaffrey stressed the international nature of the drug
problem, saying that while the United States had an estimated
600,000 heroin addicts, Pakistan had some 3 million and China 1
million or more.