COLOMBIAN CONUNDRUM - FIGHTING DRUGS WITHOUT TAKING SIDES

Those pursuing an end to the 38-year-old civil war in Colombia are working
hard, but against formidable odds.

The situation had looked promising, as diplomats obtained President Andres
Pastrana's agreement to call off an army offensive against a rebel enclave
in the south in return for a rebel pledge to return to the negotiating
table. But then the next day, rebel forces attacked the government again,
and Mr. Pastrana set last night as a new deadline.

This struggle has been going on for a long time. One could ask "So what's
new?" The United States, however, does have a stake in this fight.

In 2000, in response to the fact that Colombia was first in the world in
the production, refining and export of cocaine and in sales in the U.S.
heroin market, the United States launched a $1.3 billion program, "Plan
Colombia." It included $1 billion in equipment, manpower and training for
Colombian security forces .

The hope was that a Colombian government in firm control of the country
would be able to reduce or eradicate drug production there.

The concern was that Colombian armed forces would use American arms and
training to fight their enemies, the rebels of the 17,000-member
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

In addition to the army and FARC, the other major armed player in the
conflict, which has claimed 40,000 lives over 10 years, is the right- wing
paramilitary United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), accused of
killing peasants who support the left-wing FARC. The army is believed to be
at least sympathetic to the AUC.

President Pastrana has been making a good-faith effort over three years to
negotiate an end to the struggle with the FARC, which says it seeks land
reform and a socialist state in Colombia. He gave the movement an enclave
in 1998 to facilitate negotiations, and has renewed the mandate nine times
to keep talks going. He started setting deadlines recently, saying that the
talks were going nowhere. Colombian elections are scheduled for May. While
Mr. Pastrana can't run himself, he is interested in his party's fate and
his own legacy.

The problem for the United States is that, although it supports the
Colombian government in the fight against drug exports to America, the war
nonetheless ends up also putting the U.S. in league with rich landowners,
the army and the government in their fight against the FARC.

Talks between the government and the FARC resumed Wednesday. The United
States should actively support this effort to resolve the conflict, to
bring peace and to achieve drug-interdiction -- while keeping out of the
civil war.