BUDGET PROPOSAL WOULD EXPAND COLOMBIAN AID TO INCLUDE OIL PIPELINE PROTECTION

WASHINGTON -- U.S. military aid for Colombia, now limited to fighting
drugs, would be expanded to include protecting a major oil pipeline under
President Bush's budget proposal.

The plan announced Monday is raising concerns that the United States will
be drawn deeper into Colombia's 38-year civil war.

The proposal marks "the first time that the line separating
counterinsurgency from counterdrug assistance has been crossed in U.S.
military aid to Colombia," said Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., chairman of the
Senate Appropriations foreign operations subcommittee.

As part of the 2003 budget proposal presented Monday, Bush proposed $731
million in counternarcotics aid for the Andean region in 2003. The figure
is identical to what had been proposed for this year, before Congress cut
it to $625 million.

But this year's proposal includes something new: $98 million to train and
equip Colombian soldiers so they can protect the Cano-Limon pipeline, which
is frequently attacked by leftist guerrillas.

In both this year's aid package and the $1.3 billion Plan Colombia package
in 2000, U.S. military aid to Colombia was limited to fighting drugs.

Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn., said lawmakers should scrutinize any attempt
to expand military assistance.

"This was not what was debated in Congress when Plan Colombia was passed.
We are getting deeper into this conflict," said Wellstone, who opposed the
previous Colombian aid proposals.

But a State Department official said the proposal is "entirely consistent
with existing policy."

Curt Struble, deputy assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere
affairs, said it is a continuation of U.S. efforts to help the Colombian
economy.

The attacks on the pipeline put it out of service for 266 days last year,
hurting both the Colombian economy and the American oil companies that use
the pipeline.

The distinction between fighting drugs and fighting guerrillas has long
been murky in Colombia. Guerrillas partially finance their insurgency by
protecting drug labs and fields of drug crops.

After the Sept. 11 attacks, U.S. officials seemed less concerned about the
distinction as they stressed the need to help Colombia fight terrorism. The
State Department considers both of the principal guerrilla groups and the
main right-wing paramilitary organization to be terrorist organizations.

At a news conference Tuesday, human rights groups said the United States
should not consider new aid while the Colombian military still has not met
conditions set by Congress for receiving this year's money.

Those conditions require the military to make a greater effort to sever
ties between soldiers and paramilitaries, who are blamed for most of the
country's rights abuses.

"Until those conditions are met, it's not good policy to be talking about
military aid for the future," said Coletta Youngers of the Washington
Office on Latin America.

Colombia is the world's largest producer of cocaine and the main source of
the heroin sold in the United States.