RETHINK AID TO COLOMBIA

It is easy to agree that ''Colombia's bloody civil war has escalated
with a vengeance'' (Aid to Colombia, March 20 editorial).

However, it is doubtful that more U.S. military aid will put an end
to the violence. It hasn't so far: Violence caused over 3,500
civilian victims last year alone, and coca production has increased
in spite of the war on drugs.

It is more likely that more military aid will further feed the war,
strengthening the resolve of right-wing paramilitary groups, known as
the AUC, that engage in the most brutal human-rights violations
against civilians.

The AUC is one of the Colombian groups on the U.S. terrorist list.
Mary Robinson, United Nations high commissioner for human rights,
recently said that ``the activities of paramilitary groups
constituted the main cause of these [human rights] violations, and
the state cannot ignore its responsibilities.''

Human-rights organizations have documented widespread tacit and
active support by the Colombian army for illegal paramilitary
organizations. Robinson's report on Colombia describes several AUC
massacres in which the military received advance warning of the
attacks but did not intervene.

In other words, military aid to the Colombian military is indirectly
supporting an organization that the U.S. government classifies as
terrorist.

It is time to rethink aid to Colombia.

We should support efforts for peace instead of feeding a war that
has, as was pointed out in your editorial, ``killed more people . . .
in the last year than in the 18-month intifada in Israel.''

JUTTA MEIER-WIEDENBACH

Colombia Program Coordinator

Fellowship of Reconciliation Task Force on Latin America and the
Caribbean San Francisco, Calif.