U.S. RESTARTS PUSH TO CURB DRUG FLIGHTS

BOGOTA, Colombia - Eighteen months after an American missionary plane was
accidentally shot down, the United States will resume a campaign to help
Colombia track and force down drug flights, officials from both countries
said Wednesday.

The program was suspended in April 2001 in Colombia and Peru after a
Peruvian warplane mistakenly shot down the missionary flight over the
Amazon, killing an American woman and her infant daughter.

Colombian warplanes will intercept drug flights based on intelligence from
the United States, Colombian Gen. Hector Velasco said Wednesday. Velasco,
the Colombian air force commander, said operations are expected to resume
this month.

To prevent accidental shootdowns, Colombian ground and air crews and pilots
are receiving safety training in Oklahoma City, said Brig. Gen. Galen
Jackman of the U.S. Army.

The State Department will be the lead agency handling the program after
U.S. lawmakers recommended that the CIA no longer manage it.

U.S. officials have said illicit drug flights from the Andes to the United
States increased after the U.S. program was suspended.

The missionary plane was shot down after a CIA surveillance plane reported
a "suspicious aircraft" and called in a Peruvian jet to intercept it. The
U.S. crew later realized that the flight was innocent but could not
dissuade the Peruvians from firing on the plane.

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has said U.S. assistance in the aerial
interdiction campaign is key to cutting the flow of drugs from Colombia.