DRUG HARVEST CONTINUES IN COLOMBIA

WASHINGTON - The United States has had little success in getting
Colombian farmers to substitute legal crops for drug crops,
congressional investigators said Monday.

The biggest problem has been the lack of security in drug-growing
areas controlled by rebels or paramilitaries, the General Accounting
Office reported.

``The Colombian government does not control many coca-growing areas,
it has limited capacity to carry out sustained interdiction
operations, and its ability to effectively coordinate eradication and
alternative development activities remains uncertain,'' the report
said.

It recommended that Congress provide no more money for persuading
farmers to plant legal crops instead of illegal narcotics until
progress toward that goal can be illustrated. It said only $5.6
million of $52.5 million allocated for alternative development was
spent by Sept. 30, the end of the last fiscal year.

The review had been requested by Republican senators Charles Grassley
of Iowa, Jesse Helms of North Carolina and Mike DeWine of Ohio, who
wanted to know why the money had not been spent.

``We need to ensure that our expectations are consistent with our
abilities, and I believe this report shows that we may have been
overly optimistic,'' said Grassley, co-chairman of the Senate
narcotics control caucus.

The main agency overseeing the program, the U.S. Agency for
International Development, said it has changed policies because of the
GAO findings.

The Bush administration is considering providing more aid to Colombia
now that its peace talks with the main leftist guerrilla group has
broken down. So far, U.S. military aid essentially has been limited by
Congress to fighting drugs. The report could bolster the argument of
lawmakers who favor broader military assistance.

Alternative development is intended to complement the U.S.-Colombian
aerial drug-spraying program. The two form major parts of the $1.3
billion Plan Colombia anti-drug package approved in 2000 and a $625
million follow-up approved last year.

Colombian communities that agree to participate get help for growing
legal crops and other development aid. Those who refuse could have
herbicide sprayed on their drug crops.

The GAO said, however, that Colombia has mistakenly sprayed drug crops
while negotiations were under way to encourage farmers to join
alternative development programs. ``This will likely complicate the
(government's) relations with farmers in the region,'' it said.

Also, Colombia has had difficulty verifying that communities follow
through on pledges not to produce narcotics.

The biggest problem is Colombia's inability to control land where
farmers grow coca and opium, the raw materials for cocaine and heroin.
Much of the territory is controlled by two leftist guerrilla groups
and right-wing paramilitaries, who protect drug laboratories and
fields to finance their fighters.

U.S.-paid counternarcotics troops can chase away insurgents long
enough to allow a destruction of a conversion lab or spraying of a
field. They need to hold the territory for some time, however, for
alternative crop programs to work.

``They have to be there for a long enough period so people can operate
on the ground without the fear that somebody is going to intimidate
them,'' said Jess Ford, the GAO's international affairs director.

He said he does not know if the Colombian government's recent
offensive will change that situation. The program is directed mostly
in the southern provinces of Putumayo and Caqueta, which are not part
of the offensive.