Pubdate: Sat, 02 Sep 2000
Source: WorldNetDaily (US Web)
Copyright: 2000, WorldNetDaily.com, Inc.
Contact:  PO Box 409, Cave Junction, OR 97523-0409
Fax: (541) 597-1700
Website: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/
Author: I. J. Toby Westerman

MOSCOW ATTACKS U.S. AID TO COLOMBIA

Decries 'Dangerous Aspirations Of The Western Military'

Moscow has condemned the recently announced U.S. aid package -- 
predominately military in nature -- to the South American nation of 
Colombia.  

The $1.3 billion in U.S. assistance is "a fresh model of interference 
in another country's affairs" and further evidence of "the dangerous 
aspirations of the Western military," according to official Russian 
sources.  

Moscow suspects that the military aid offered to Colombia "will fight 
not only against drug dealers but [also] against rebels ..." in order 
"to test, in practical terms, direct global policy in the conditions of 
yet another country."  

The statements were carried by the Voice of Russia World Service, the 
official broadcasting service of the Russian government.  

The aid package is part of Plan Colombia, an initiative of Colombian 
President Andres Pastrana, to eliminate the manufacturing and sale of 
drugs, which have financed that nation's 40-year civil war.  

According to Moscow, the United States is interested only in the 
military aspects of Plan Colombia. "It was unpleasant to Washington 
that the Colombia Plan also sought support for social reforms and 
strengthened the democratic institutions" of Colombia, the broadcast 
declared.  

While admitting "the Colombian authorities have themselves called for 
international assistance," Moscow nevertheless denounced "the purchase 
of 60 helicopters and the training of Colombian 'task units.'"  

At present, Colombian Marxist guerrilla groups and drug lords hold 
approximately 40 percent of the nation in their grip. The rebels obtain 
money from the profits of the drug cartel in order to finance their 
operations.  

Echoing the threat of the Colombian guerrillas, Moscow warned "this new 
escalation" would make "the domestic Colombian conflict international." 

Moscow also tied U.S. aid to Colombia to the events in the Balkans by 
stating, "The recent aggression of the United States and NATO against 
Yugoslavia, among other events, has alerted Russia to the dangerous 
aspirations of the Western military."   

"This explains," according to Moscow, "why only the most naive can 
remain unperturbed" by President Bill Clinton's statement asserting 
that the new aid package would not lead to another Vietnam-type 
conflict, nor is it an act of "imperialism."  

Moscow's distress over U.S. aid to Colombia comes at a time when Russia 
itself is involved in direct military aid to former Soviet republics 
struggling against Islamic fundamentalist guerrilla groups infiltrating 
from neighboring Afghanistan.  

The day before Moscow expressed its displeasure at U.S. military 
assistance to Colombia, the Russian government announced that the 
Central Asian state of Uzbekistan requested -- and would receive -- 
military assistance from Russia "to eliminate units of Islamic 
fundamentalists which invaded the republic."  

Moscow considers the request from Uzbekistan as "an alarm signal which 
is evidence of growing tension in Central Asia."  

Observers have noted that Central Asia is not only affected by an 
incursion of Islamic militants, but that the guerrillas are also 
finding recruits among young Muslims in the area to increase their 
numbers.  

Ironically, while Moscow considers U.S. aid to Colombia as testing a 
"model of interference in another country's affairs," Russia's military 
aid to Uzbekistan is reported as done merely "according to bilateral 
agreement."  

Editor's note: WND's multi-lingual reporter Toby Westerman
specializes in monitoring global shortwave broadcasts and reading
foreign-language news journals for information not readily available
from the domestic press. Each month, Westerman presents a special
in-depth report in WorldNetDaily's monthly magazine, WorldNet. Readers
may subscribe to WorldNet through WND's online store.
- ---
MAP posted-by: John Chase