COLOMBIAN AID

Your Feb. 7 editorial "New Commitment to Colombia" supports the Bush
administration's intention to increase the amount of U.S. military aid for
Colombia, South America. Colombia is already the third-largest recipient of
U.S. foreign aid. Congress awarded $1.3 billion to Colombia from 2000-2002
to try to stop the growth of coca and poppies, the source of most cocaine
and much heroin used in the United States. However, the supply of cocaine
and heroin continues to be plentiful. Now the Bush administration wants to
send $98 million more to help the Colombian military protect Occidental
Petroleum's oil pipeline in Colombia from FARC and ELN guerrilla attacks.

The war between those guerrillas and the Colombian government has lasted 40
years. Last Jan. 10, Congress ordered that foreign aid to Colombia must
depend on proof that the Colombian military has stopped colluding with the
paramilitary death squads known as the AUC (United Self Defense Forces of
Colombia). Section 567 of that Foreign Aid Law establishes specific human
rights conditions that Colombia must meet in order for aid to be disbursed.
On Feb. 5, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and other
organizations stated jointly that they had found overwhelming evidence of
the Colombian government's failure to meet the human rights conditions. So,
in order for U.S. dollars to continue flowing to the Colombian military,
the U.S. State Department must issue a conflicting opinion. The need to
protect an oil pipeline cannot justify ignoring the continuing human rights
violations of the Colombian military.

Sending more military money to Colombia would be a terrible example of
American values.

Defense manufacturers and the international oil companies that own most of
the oil fields in Colombia will be the major beneficiaries of this policy.
Colombian citizens are rightfully concerned about the awful violence
perpetrated by the guerrillas on many innocent people, as well as the
pipelines.

But so are many other Colombians who have been the victims of ongoing
massacres by the AUC with aid from the Colombian military in many cases.

The Colombian government and the guerrillas must negotiate an end to the
war. More military aid will only inflame the situation.

SHARON FRATEPIETRO