PLAN COLOMBIA

As the US Threatens to Attack Iraq for Supposedly Harbouring Biological
Weapons, News Emerges of a US Plan to Conduct a Biological War of Its Own

Move Over Agent Orange... Say Hello to 'Agent Green'

'People in a position of responsibility who are indifferent to the health
risks of eradication with Fusarium are engaged in the modern-day equivalent
of the 16th century European conquerors' debate over whether native people
are human beings and, if so, whether they have souls.'

- - Dr. Oswaldo Jave, head of the Asthma, Environment and Tobacco Unit,
Hospital Dos de Mayo, Lima, Peru

US Moves Towards Biological Warfare in Colombia

A plan to use an untested pathogenic fungus - Fusarium oxysporum - in
Colombia's US-funded 'war on drugs' resurfaced in the US House of
Representatives in December 2002. Critics say the plan proposes illegal
acts of biological warfare, poses major ecological risks to one of the
world's most bio-diverse countries, and will increase the human damage of a
failed eradication policy.

The new fungal agent was dubbed 'Agent Green' by the Sunshine Project - an
international NGO opposed to the use of biological weapons -, and were
developed by the US Department of Agriculture and two other facilities
using US government funding: a private company in Montana, and a former
Soviet biological weapons facility in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

In June 1999 the US Senate approved a $1.3 billion aid package in support
of Colombia's 'war on drugs'. The money depended on Fusarium being tested
as another weapon (alongside conventional pesticides) in Colombia's
campaign to eradicate illicit drugs.

The plan was opposed by civil society worldwide - from South America to
Europe. On February 1, 2001, the European Parliament approved resolution
474-1, which called on the EU to 'take the necessary steps to prevent the
introduction [in Colombia] of biological agents such as Fusarium, given the
dangers of their use to human health and the environment alike'. Poul
Nielson, the European commissioner for Development and Humanitarian
Assistance, declared that he was 'completely in agreement' with the
resolution's sponsor. President Clinton eventually waived the
Fusarium-testing requirement, citing concerns for the proliferation of
biological weapons. Colombia also rejected proposals to test the pathogen
due to environmental risks. George Bush, however, is less concerned than
his predecessor about how he is viewed internationally.

What Is 'Agent Green'?

Fusarium oxysporum is a well-known plant pathogen that causes damage and
large losses in food and industrial crops worldwide. There are many
associated health risks. Human Fusarium infection (fusariosis) is an
emerging, life-threatening disease with a mortality rate as high as 70 per
cent. Concentrated aerosols of fungal spores are known to cause dermal and
respiratory difficulties in humans. These problems have been reported by
UNDCP scientists working with the Pleospora variant of the herbicide. As
early as 1989 even the 'inventor' of EN-4 and other strains to be used on
coca and cannabis admitted in a letter to the US Drug Enforcement Agency
that Fusarium poses 'a problem in immuno-compromised patients'.

Plan Colombia - the Economics

6 million Children living in Colombia in 'absolute' poverty according to UNICEF

65 Percentage of Colombians living in conditions of extreme poverty $150m
Annual military aid from US to Colombia before Plan Colombia $1.3 billion
Additional sum given under plan Colombia 2 Countries receiving more US aid
than Colombia (Israel and Egypt) 0 Countries receiving more US military aid
than Colombia

20 Corporations with executives who accompanied Clinton to Colombia in 2000

100 Percentage of Colombia's public utilities the IMF demanded be sold to
private owners under a 1999 loan agreement

Another Treaty to Violate

The global outrage at the spraying of Agent Orange and other
environmentally malign potions across South-east Asia during the Vietnam
war led to ENMOD - the Convention on the Prohibition of Military or Any
Other Hostile Use of Environmental Modification Techniques. Adopted by the
UN in 1976 and ratified by the US, ENMOD prohibits any signatory nation
from using the environment as a weapon of war - which the spraying of
Colombia constitutes by definition. The US Fusarium bio-bomblets can't even
be made to stay in Colombia, but, like the more conventional pesticides and
fumigants already dropped, will inevitably stray across the Colombian
border into Ecuador and Peru. Both Peru and Ecuador vehemently oppose the
US bio-war plan and charge that it violates international law.
Specifically, they cite a non-proliferation section of the Biological
Warfare Convention that prohibits the transfer of germ weapons and
technology from one nation to another.

Fumigation

1 Colombia's forests account for 10 per cent of global biodiversity, making
it the second most bio-diverse country in the world. Drug-war induced
deforestation in Colombia has led experts to theorise that Colombia could
become another Somalia or Ethiopia within 50 years - with a fast-growing
population that is larger than what the food production can support due to
poor agricultural soils or techniques.

2 Between 1985 and 1997 nearly half a million acres of coca were eradicated
in Latin America, but coca cultivation increased by 87 per cent.

3 More than 128,000 acres of coca were fumigated in Colombia in 2000, but
the net area under cultivation increased.

4 Crop fumigation has increased every year from 1995 to 1999 while coca
yield has increased nearly threefold, according to US government statistics.

5 Aerial spraying of a marijuana field near a Raramuri village in the north
of Colombia left 300 sick and injured and may have killed a two-year-old
girl, according to the Chihuahua State Human Rights Office.

6 When aerially sprayed, the Monsanto-produced herbicide glyphosate
(commonly referred to by its brand name 'Roundup') can drift for up to half
a mile. Children have lost hair and suffered diarrhoea as a result.

7 Between 1992 and 1998, fumigation with around 660,000 gallons of
glyphosate was used to spray more than 147,000 acres of opium and coca
fields. It had little effect, as it is estimated that there are around
303,000 acres of coca still being cultivated.

8 Crop fumigation generated $24m for Monsanto between 1992 and 1998.