Pubdate: Wed, 18 Oct 2000 Source: San Diego Union Tribune (CA) Copyright: 2000 Union-Tribune Publishing Co. Contact: PO Box 120191, San Diego, CA, 92112-0191 Fax: (619) 293-1440 Website: http://www.uniontrib.com/ Forum: http://www.uniontrib.com/cgi-bin/WebX Author: Larry Rohter, New York Times News Service COLOMBIAN CONFLICT DOMINATES TALK AT WESTERN HEMISPHERE DEFENSE SUMMIT MANAUS, Brazil -- Defense ministers from throughout the Western Hemisphere assembled in the heart of the Amazon yesterday to begin four days of meetings aimed at strengthening military and security cooperation in the region. But the formal agenda of the meeting in Manaus was overshadowed by the deepening conflict in Colombia and the increased American commitment there. Leaders continued to express reservations about being drawn into the conflict in any way. Both the U.S. secretary of defense, William Cohen, and his Colombian counterpart, Luis Fernando Ramrez Acuna, were on hand to allay concerns generated by the Clinton administration's recent decision to provide $1.3 billion in emergency aid, most of it in military assistance, to the Colombian government. "It's a very delicate situation internally in Colombia," Fernando Henrique Cardoso, president of Brazil, said at a news conference yesterday afternoon after formally opening the conference, attended by every country in the Americas except Cuba. But, he added, "the problem is a domestic problem," and "we are not interested at all in any kind of Brazilian intervention in Colombia." This city and the issue of Amazon security were chosen as the locale and theme of the meeting months before the United States approved the aid package, which is aimed at weakening drug traffickers and the guerrilla groups that protect them. But "Plan Colombia," as the effort is called, has forced every government in the region to reassess its military readiness and has drawn widespread criticism from politicians, the press and religious leaders. During a visit to Brazil in late August, for instance, President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela warned that the American aid plan could lead to "the Vietnamization of the entire Amazon." Without mentioning Chavez by name, Cohen, who returned to Washington yesterday afternoon in order to attend a memorial service today for sailors who died in the attack on the destroyer Cole, emphatically denied that any such escalation would take place. "We do not, under any circumstances, intend to become involved militarily in Colombia," Cohen said. "Anything that you read or hear to the contrary is completely false and fabricated." Government leaders, especially in the five countries that border Colombia, have expressed concern that an influx of coca cultivation, refugees and fighting on their own territory may result from the push the Colombian government is planning into coca-growing areas under guerrilla control. But Cohen argued that any effort to ignore the crisis or stay aloof from it was likely to backfire. "The United States is concerned that the 'spillover' of those problems to neighboring states, which has been increasing in recent years, will only worsen if we do nothing," he said yesterday. "Working together, we hope to help Colombia in its time of need and prevent the conflict from shifting Colombia's problems to its neighbors." - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D