U.S. TROOPS WILL HAVE NO COMBAT ROLE IN COLOMBIA, OFFICIAL SAYS

WASHINGTON -- A State Department official assured senators yesterday that
U.S. soldiers will not be fighting Colombian rebels even if Congress lets
Colombia use anti-drug helicopters and other equipment to battle the
insurgents.

"Not one of us here is talking about U.S. troops in a combat role," said
Marc Grossman, undersecretary of state for political affairs. "The
Colombians need to take the brunt of this, but we need to be there to help
them." The Bush administration has no intention of exceeding the limits of
400 U.S. military trainers and 400 civilian contractors who were sent to
join Colombian President Andres Pastrana's anti-drug Plan Colombia,
Grossman told the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on the Western
Hemisphere.

Also, the administration "will not stop our human-rights vetting of
Colombian military units receiving U.S. assistance," Grossman said.

Sen. Chris Dodd, the subcommittee chairman, said the United States must
fulfill its pledge to aid Colombia in its "hour of crisis -- a crisis that
has profound implications for institutions of democracy in Colombia and
throughout the hemisphere." Still, Dodd, D-Conn., asked what the
administration hopes to accomplish by loosening restrictions on U.S.
assistance.

"What we seek is flexibility that would enable Colombia to use U.S.-
provided helicopters and the counterdrug brigade from Plan Colombia to
fight terrorism some of the time as needed," Grossman said.

That unit, trained by U.S. officers, has shown "impressive results" in
fighting drugs, said Army Maj. Gen. Gary Speer, acting commander in chief
of the Southern Command. He noted that the brigade has not been accused of
human-rights abuses.

Colombia's three main rebel groups -- the Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia, FARC; the National Liberation Army of Colombia, ELN; and the
United Self-Defense Group of Colombia, AUC -- are on the State Department's
list of foreign terrorist organizations. All three are self-financed
through drug trafficking, Speer said.

Dodd said FARC recently had an estimated 17,000 members, while AUC had
11,000. But support for the AUC has increased as FARC-sponsored violence
grew, he said.

"When people are frightened, they will grasp onto whatever offers some
security," Dodd said.

Colombia's military now views the AUC as a greater threat than the FARC or
the ELN, Speer said. "The people in Colombia look at the AUC as doing
something." Dodd criticized Colombia's exclusion of college-bound young
people from military conscription. "Excluding the elites from having to
bear the burden is contributing to dismembering of the fabric of society,"
he said.

"I have an eerie feeling you're going to be back here at this table next
year telling me it's not getting better, it's getting worse," with the AUC
growing to 18,000 people, Dodd said.