U.S. STOPS ANTI-DRUG PAYMENTS TO COLOMBIA

The U.S. government has frozen payments to a program for Colombia's
anti-drug police after discovering that $2 million from the account had
disappeared, the State Department said yesterday.

In Bogota, Gen. Gustavo Socha, the officer in charge of the anti-narcotics
unit, was relieved of his command yesterday, a day after 12 officers in the
anti-drug corps had been dismissed.

Both the Bush administration and Colombian government officials attempted
to play down the significance of the diversion, which comes amid rising
skepticism on Capitol Hill about U.S. involvement in Colombia's battle with
narcotics traffickers and armed insurgent groups.

"This funding is a very, very small part of our overall assistance to
Colombia and has not directly affected our counter-narcotics programs,
including the aerial eradication program," State Department spokesman
Richard Boucher said.

U.S. Embassy officials in Bogota discovered the funding discrepancy two
months ago. The account provides $4 million annually to the police unit.

Mr. Boucher said U.S. support for the Colombian counter-narcotics police
"remains strong."

"We're confident of the professionalism and the dedication of the vast
majority of its members," he added.

Mr. Boucher also said the United States backed Gen. Jorge Enrique Linares,
named yesterday to replace Gen. Socha.

Gen. Socha at first insisted he would stay in his post, saying the missing
money resulted not from graft but from procedural errors. National Police
Chief Gen. Ernesto Gilibert reassigned Gen. Socha to a unit that provides
security for public officials and hinted he could be given his anti-drug
post back after the investigation concludes.

Bogota press accounts said as many as 20 officers could have been involved
in the scandal and that the money had apparently been paid to fake
companies for goods including fuel, water, gasoline and vehicles.

Gen. Gilibert suggested that the money had not been stolen but might have
been inappropriately directed to government programs not dealing with drugs.

The U.S. freeze affects only the money earmarked for the police account and
does not affect hundreds of millions of dollars in aid approved by both the
Clinton and Bush administrations to the government of President Andres
Pastrana.

The U.S. government's "Plan Colombia" restricts U.S. aid to helping
Colombia control the drug trade, by far the U.S. market's largest source of
cocaine.

But much of the profits from the illicit-drug trade have gone to finance
the operations of massive leftist guerrilla forces battling the government,
as well as a right-wing paramilitary force. The three largest
anti-government groups are on the State Department's official list of
terrorist organizations.

Colombian officials have been pressing the United States to provide more
direct military aid to help in the fight against the guerrillas. The Bush
administration has supported expanding U.S. aid to include training and
equipment to protect Colombian infrastructure sites such as oil pipelines
from saboteurs, but has been reluctant to approve direct aid in Colombia's
38-year civil war.