Pubdate: Wed, 31 May 2000
Source: International Herald-Tribune (France)
Copyright: International Herald Tribune 2000
Contact:  181, Avenue Charles de Gaulle, 92521 Neuilly Cedex, France
Fax: (33) 1 41 43 93 38
Website: http://www.iht.com/
Author: Karen DeYoung, Washington Post Service

AS FUNDS LANGUISH IN SENATE, DRUG WAR FALTERS IN COLOMBIA

WASHINGTON - U.S.-backed anti-drug programs in Colombia are running out of 
money and have effectively been halted as Congress delays emergency funding 
for military training and other activities, senior Clinton administration 
officials say.

Anticipating that Congress would quickly pass a $1.3 billion supplemental 
appropriation requested on an emergency basis in January, President Bill 
Clinton's administration began expanding the anti-drug effort early this 
year and increased spending. But the funding package has been held up in 
the Senate for months and now appears unlikely to move forward until at 
least midsummer.

In the meantime, according to officials seeking to emphasize the urgency of 
the problem, leftist guerrillas and rightist paramilitary forces involved 
in the drug trade have stepped up deployment and strengthened their 
defenses in the main regions where coca, the basic ingredient of cocaine, 
is grown. Instead of leveling off, as the administration had hoped, 
production of cocaine is likely to increase this year.

Among the results of the funding shortfall cited by officials:

- - Fumigation flights against coca, a centerpiece of the anti-drug effort, 
have been scaled back or stopped in many areas. Fumigation of opium 
poppies, used to make heroin, has been stopped.

- - A special, Colombian Army antidrug battalion, trained at U.S. expense 
last year, has yet to undertake its first mission because the helicopters 
it is supposed to use are not available.

- - A second 1,000-man battalion is "doing jumping jacks" while waiting for 
U.S. Army Special Forces trainers for whom no funding has been approved, 
one official said.

"Things are worsening," another official said. "They are not static. Every 
week we are losing ground."

These descriptions of a situation spinning out of control mark a new tack 
for administration officials. While warning that conditions were grave, 
they previously reassured Congress that their proposed remedy would begin 
to turn the tide in Colombia and, some years from now, stem the flood of 
drugs into the United States. That was enough to get the supplemental 
appropriation through the House of Representatives in March and send it to 
the Senate.

But some senators remain opposed to the package, holding that the Colombian 
military should be ineligible for aid because of human rights abuses, that 
the plan itself is poorly conceived and that anti-drug money is better 
spent on prevention efforts at home.
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