REBUKE FOR CIA IN PERU TRAGEDY

Committee Reports On Michiganders' Deaths

The deaths of a Michigan woman and her 7-month-old daughter whose plane was
mistaken for a drug smuggler's by a Peruvian air force jet and shot down in
April was the fault of the Peruvian military and poor U.S. management of the
interdiction program, according to a U.S. Senate panel.

The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence said Wednesday that the CIA
should no longer run U.S. drug interdiction flights over Peru. It was during
one of those flights that a plane carrying the Bowers family -- Baptist
missionaries from Fruitport, near Muskegon -- was shot down over the Amazon
River.

Veronica (Roni) Bowers and her daughter Charity were killed. Her husband,
Jim Bowers, and their son, 7-year-old Cory, survived the attack. The pilot,
Kevin Donaldson, was left paralyzed below the waist.

The missionaries were working on a program out of the Calvary Church of
Fruitport. Eric Strattan, senior associate pastor at the church, said
Wednesday the report was little solace and not much different from
preliminary reports that criticized the drug interception program in Peru.

"It would be difficult to have closure because no matter who was assigned
blame, Roni and Charity are still dead due to a tragic accident," Strattan
said.

"Jim stated publicly many times . . . that he didn't think the tragic deaths
of his wife and daughter should stop the war on drugs. I think it's safe to
say he would not feel differently today."

The Senate report said "lack of judgment displayed by key individuals"
involved was the primary cause. Select Committee chairman Bob Graham,
D-Fla., said in a statement: "Safety procedures, however, had degraded over
time to the point where this kind of tragedy was almost inevitable. This
program needs a dramatic overhaul before we should consider restarting it."