Pubdate: Sat, 16 Sep 2000 Source: Baltimore Sun (MD) Copyright: 2000 The Baltimore Sun, a Times Mirror Newspaper. Contact: 501 N. Calvert Street P.0. Box 1377 Baltimore, MD 21278 Fax: (410) 315-8912 Website: http://www.sunspot.net/ Forum: http://www.sunspot.net/cgi-bin/ultbb/Ultimate.cgi?action=intro Author: Larry Birns, and Julie Dasenbrock Note: The writers are, respectively, the director and a policy associate at the Council on Hemispheric Affairs. U.S. MILITARY AID WON'T BRING PEACE TO COLOMBIA The Sun's editorial praising Colombian President Andres Pastrana's Plan Colombia and the $1.3 billion U.S. aid package that helps fund it was based on a leap of faith with no landing in sight ("Flying down to Cartagena," Aug. 30). Not once did it mention the extent of the Colombian military's corruption, and it only perfunctorily referred to the violence of the nation's armed forces. It also trivialized the role of the army's brutal collaborators, the right-wing paramilitary forces of the United Self Defense Groups of Colombia, which the country's president maintains are together responsible for 80 percent of the country's political killings. After admirably listing many of the ingredients of Colombia's present miasma, the editorial limply concluded that the status quo is better than nothing. In fact, U.S. aid will not bring this war-torn nation peace, but is certain to escalate the violence that daily plagues its people. Although the editorial alluded to President Clinton waiving the human rights standards for Colombia, it didn't explain that if he hadn't, U.S. aid legally could have gone to only one military unit considered "clean" enough to qualify for such assistance. The Sun's editorial suggested that "from a human rights standpoint" it would be worse to withhold the aid, but provided no evidence for this exotic notion. And while the editorial noted that 80 percent of U.S. aid is for the military, it all but trivialized Colombia's desperate economic straits, which feature a 20 percent unemployment rate and a 50 percent poverty rate. The issue here is the White House's single-minded quest to reduce the domestic drug supply at any cost, even if it means greatly magnifying Colombia's increasingly bloody internal conflict. Providing more sophisticated (and more lethal) equipment to abusive military units can only exacerbate violence and injustice, while bringing no peace. - --- MAP posted-by: Don Beck