POLICY FAILS TO STOP COCAINE FLOW INTO U.S.

SANTA MARTA, Colombia - After flying over blackened coca fields, White House
drug czar John Walters conceded that seizing cocaine, destroying coca crops
and locking up drug traffickers in Colombia have had little impact on the
flow of cocaine on American streets.

But in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press, Walters
nevertheless insisted that Washington must stay the course with
so-called Plan Colombia, a $3.3 billion, five-year program mainly to
train, equip and provide intelligence to Colombian forces spearheading
the war on drugs. "We have a history in the United States of not
following through on programs like this," Walters said late Wednesday.

During his three-day visit, Walters also met with President Alvaro
Uribe and attended a funeral for nine police officers killed in
apparent retaliation for a drug seizure.

The U.S.-funded Plan Colombia has led to a huge increase in drug
seizures, with 48 tons of cocaine confiscated in Colombia last year
compared to just 8 tons in 1999. Closer judicial cooperation between
the two countries has allowed for 120 alleged drug traffickers to be
extradited to the United States for trial in two years.

But aerial eradication, a key part of the aid package in which crop
dusters fly over fields of coca -- the raw ingredient in cocaine --
and spray them with herbicides, has drawn sharp criticism, despite its
success in reducing the area under cultivation.

The amount of cultivated coca crops across the country fell to 280,000
acres last year, from 420,000 acres in 2001 -- a 33 percent drop,
officials say. Peasants in the sprayed zones complain of health
problems and rights groups say the herbicides kill banana and yucca
plants. The U.S. and Colombian governments insist spraying is safe and
refuse to stop.