COLOMBIAN LEADER SHARES BUSH'S AGENDA

Warm Welcome Likely For Uribe As He Presses For More Aid

ANALYSIS

When it comes to fighting terror, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe reads
from the same script as President Bush. Their shared agenda will likely
produce warm words and the promise of more U.S. help when the recently
elected leader of the South American nation visits the White House on
Wednesday.

WHILE BUSH'S war on terrorism is just a year old, Colombia has been
embroiled in civil war for nearly four decades.

When Uribe sits down for lunch with Bush at the White House, he will make a
case for more direct aid to help the Colombian military crush left-wing
guerrilla groups.

The administration is proposing about $450 million in assistance for
Colombia for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1, most of it for security and
counter-narcotics assistance.

Uribe, a former governor of Antioquia, ran his election campaign on a
single-issue mandate of defeating the guerrillas, notably the left-wing
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as FARC.

FARC killed his father in 1983 and tried to assassinate Uribe during the
election.

Since assuming power on Aug. 7, Uribe has declared a state of emergency,
granting the military extensive powers to pursue the reputed 18,000-strong
force, which controls vast tracts of Colombian territory used to cultivate
cocaine and heroin.

Colombia produces 90 percent of the cocaine sold in the United States and
more than 60 percent of the heroin.

It's a battle about which the Bush administration is unequivocal. While the
Clinton administration persuaded Congress to approve an overall $1.7 billion
aid package for Colombia, it was generally expected to largely help with the
war on drugs.

But in July, at Bush's behest, Congress approved a ground-breaking request
to specifically divert some aid for the army's war against left-wing and
right-wing groups.

In addition to the FARC, the government has targeted the smaller leftist
National Liberation Army, known as the ELN, as well as the right-wing United
Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC).

The AUC, a paramilitary group reported to number 11,000, is believed to have
close links to elements within the Colombia military.

As Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., said this month, "We have entered new
territory here, but we have no choice but to engage in this."

END OF PEACE TALKS

Biden and others say Uribe's strategy is the only viable one after the
failure of his predecessor, Andres Pastrana, to persuade the rebels to lay
down their weapons.

Pastrana devoted much of his term to meeting with the FARC leadership and
granting the group control of a section of the country the size of
Switzerland.

Helped by the United Nations, Pastrana sought to persuade the FARC to end
its civil war. But after a series of high-profile kidnappings and the
hijacking of a domestic airliner in February, he abandoned the policy and
ordered the army to reoccupy what had become known as "Farclandia."

Uribe has embraced the new offensive with gusto, ever since the FARC lobbed
rockets at a Bogota neighborhood on the day of his inauguration, killing 21
people.

"I want not to appease them," Uribe said Tuesday in Washington. "We can no
longer allow the terrorist groups to threaten our people."

According to the military, the policy has resulted in some notable
successes, including an air force attack on two alleged rebel camps that
killed 200 guerrillas last week. It also has led to the revival of a
much-derided tactic of recruiting hundreds of informers to help the army.

But the hard-line approach is fulfilling Uribe's election promises. "'If the
tough measures are good for the country, I agree," said Francisco Lopes, a
Bogota resident. "I am sick and tired of this war, and most of Colombia is
too."

UNSAVORY BEDFELLOWS

For critics, the problem is not Uribe's objective - re-establishing the
power of the state over much of lawless Colombia - but his methods and his
allies.

"We're all for giving Uribe a chance," said Robin Kirk, a researcher with
Human Rights Watch.

The trouble, as far as human rights organizations are concerned, is Uribe's
partners, the high-ranking officers who have nurtured the relationship
between the military and self-defense groups, most notably the AUC.

"The army depends on these paramilitaries to wage war on the guerrillas, and
they use dirty-war tactics," Kirk said. The strategy allows the army to deny
involvement in violent acts such as massacres, thereby shielding it from
unwanted media attention, especially international, she said.

In a move hailed by rights groups, the State Department added the AUC to its
list of terrorist organizations in September 2001. It was seen as an overdue
addition to the list, which already included the FARC and the ELN.

And on Tuesday, AUC sources said that its leader Carlos Castano was headed
to the United States, only hours after U.S. and Colombian officials said
Washington was seeking his extradition for drug trafficking.

According to Human Rights Watch, the paramilitary group committed at least
1,015 killings in 2001, including more than 100 massacres. The FARC, which
was engaged in talks peace talks during this time, was responsible for 200
deaths and more than 1,000 kidnappings.

CALL FOR ACTION

But a surge in human rights abuses may be the price Colombians and the
United States is willing to pay - at least in the short term.

Phillip McLean, a senior associate at the Center for Strategic and
International Studies in Washington, D.C., suggested that while the United
States may be looking for quick results, the greatest pressure on Uribe may
be from Colombian voters.

"In some ways he's got to move fast for his own people and own credibility,"
McLean said. "Right now he's got a lot of momentum but he could lose that."

After the failure of Pastrana's strategy, the voices of human rights groups
have for now been drowned out by the voters, frustrated and angry over an
annual death toll of around 3,500 from violence and the nation's reputation
as the kidnapping capital of the world.

"There is no future for our children if we carry on this way. This country
is in chaos," said Juana Alvarez, who lives in Bogata. "Uribe won because he
promised to end the violence and death. That is what we all want. No matter
how he does it, we want peace."

However, for Bush, the eagerness to help Uribe may suck the United States
deeper than ever into a conflict that has proved intractable for 38 years.

Only last week, Gen. Galen Jackman, director of operations for the U.S.
Southern Command, said the U.S. military needs flexibility to help the
Colombian government with counterinsurgency equipment, training and
intelligence.

"We cannot have artificial boundaries in dealing with organizations involved
in drugs and terrorism," Jackman said.

According to one U.S. diplomat familiar with Colombia, Uribe has the mettle
to deliver on some of his promises, but Washington will need to be ready for
a long haul.

Retaking Colombia region by region and rebuilding the people's trust in the
government of Bogata could take 15 to 20 years.

But after the failure of Pastrana's approach, "You have to give Uribe the
tools to get this done," said the diplomat, speaking on condition of
anonymity. "You have to cut him some slack."