Pubdate: Tue, 05 Dec 2000 Source: Bergen Record (NJ) Copyright: 2000 Bergen Record Corp. Contact: http://www.bergen.com/cgi-bin/feedback Website: http://www.bergen.com/ TREE PLANTING SYMBOLIZES ATTEMPT TO HALT COCA CROP BOGOTA, Colombia - Yanking a coca bush from the ground and planting a magnolia tree in its place, officials kicked off an ambitious program to eradicate drug crops in the heart of Colombia's cocaine-producing region. During the weekend ceremony in southern Colombia's Putumayo province - -- home of nearly half the world's cocaine-yielding acreage -- about 700 peasant farmers agreed to destroy their coca plots in return for government aid to adopt alternative, and legal, livelihoods. The crop-substitution program is the "soft side" of a U.S.-backed military push into the region, in which remaining coca fields will be seized by government troops and destroyed by aerial fumigation. - --- MAP posted-by: Derek