AFTER VISIT TO COLOMBIA, COLEMAN CALLS FOR CONTINUED ANTI-DRUG AID

WASHINGTON - Sen. Norm Coleman retraced a trip to Colombia taken by his
predecessor, the late Paul Wellstone, but came back with the opposite
conclusion: the United States should continue to aid the Colombian
government's anti-drug war.

"Plan Colombia is making a difference," Coleman said Tuesday, referring to
the $2.5 billion in anti-drug aid that the United States has given to
Colombia. "We need to continue with it."

The aid is used primarily to help Colombia buy, fly and maintain
helicopters and spray planes. The helicopters are used on drug-fighting
missions, such as protecting spray planes that fumigate fields of coca and
opium, the raw material for cocaine and heroin. Colombia is the world's
largest producer of cocaine and a major supplier of heroin to the United
States.

Coleman, a freshman Minnesota Republican, traveled to Colombia last Friday,
meeting with President Alvaro Uribe, military officials, and U.S. forces in
the country, before returning home on Monday. It was his first trip
overseas as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations' Western Hemisphere
subcommittee.

Wellstone, a Democrat who was killed in a place crash last October, was one
of Congress' most outspoken critics of the Colombia aid. He traveled to
Colombia in 2000 and again in 2001.

Coleman suggested that Wellstone might have felt differently if he had had
an opportunity to meet with Uribe, who was elected president last year on
promises to crack down on drug traffickers and illegal armed groups in the
nation's 39-year civil war.

"Leadership makes a difference," Coleman said during a briefing with
Minnesota reporters. "President Uribe is an outstanding individual. I have
great hope with him as president."

One of Wellstone's main objections to the aid was the Colombian
government's human rights record. He spoke out against the government's
relationship with the right-wing paramilitary group United Self-Defense
Forces of Colombia. The group, known by its Spanish initials, AUC, has been
blamed for some of the bloodiest massacres in Colombia's history.

Coleman said he raised that issue at every meeting with Colombian
officials, and got assurances about the country's commitment to human
rights. He noted that during his visit, the Colombian military captured a
paramilitary commander, Bolmar Sepulveda, who is accused of killing 450 people.

But Coleman said there was no moral basis for the left-wing movement
either, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

"Whatever cause there was 10 years ago is gone - because of drugs," he
said. "They're narco-terrorists."

Wellstone tried to get money earmarked for Plan Colombia diverted to drug
treatment centers in the United States.

"This is not an either-or," Coleman said. "You've got to get rid of the
production aspect of it. At the same time, we have to focus on domestic
treatment."

U.S. and Colombian officials credit Plan Colombia for a 15 percent drop
last year in coca cultivation and a 25 percent drop in opium. But an
official of the General Accounting Office, Congress' investigative arm,
said earlier this month that the program has had mixed results, noting that
coca cultivation rose annually from 1995 to 2001 and opium cultivation was
steady.

Coleman said that he went to Colombia both to find out more about the
program and to offer support to Uribe.

"There is a human component to this - to tell this leader he has support in
the United States," he said. "FARC has made it clear they want to kill him.
As chairman of the Western Hemisphere subcommittee, I wanted to tell him we
appreciate your leadership."

The trip was not publicized ahead of time because of security concerns.

Coleman said he hopes to return this fall, and to visit Brazil and Chile as
well.