Pubdate: Fri, 07 Sep 2001
Source: The Herald-Sun (NC)
Copyright: 2001 The Herald-Sun
Contact:  http://www.herald-sun.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1428
Author: Rick Veccio, Associated Press Writer

PERU TO PRESS FOR DRUG FLIGHTS

LIMA, Peru -- Peru plans to urge Secretary of State Colin Powell to resume 
the U.S.-backed anti-drug flights suspended after the Peruvian air force 
mistakenly shot down an American missionary plane this spring.

Powell is scheduled to visit Lima on Monday and Tuesday for an assembly of 
the Organization of American States.

Minister Diego Garcia Sayan said that Peruvian officials would use the 
opportunity to ask for clarification of "the dates and conditions in which 
aerial drug interdiction flights could restart."

The missionary plane was shot from the sky on April 20 after it was 
initially mistaken for a drug flight by a CIA-operated surveillance plane 
and then fired on by a Peruvian military jet. A Baptist missionary, 
Veronica Bowers, and her 7-month-old daughter, Charity, were killed.

Results of a joint U.S.-Peruvian investigation released Aug. 2 found that 
an overloaded communications system, procedural errors and translation 
problems between the English-speaking CIA-hired crew and Spanish-speaking 
air force pilots had all contributed to the tragedy.

When the report was issued, Maj. Gen. Jorge Kisic, operations chief of 
Peru's air force, said Peru's skies had been "inundated by narcotics 
traffickers" since the surveillance and interception flights were halted 
over Peru and Colombia.

However, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Rand Beers, who headed the 
American side of the investigative commission, said no evidence of 
increased trafficking had been seen.

But Abraham Ramirez, legal counsel to Peru's air force and a member of the 
Peruvian-U.S. investigative commission, said Wednesday that, while no 
statistics were available, "the air bridge for illicit trafficking in 
Peruvian airspace has increased since April 20."

Ramirez said Beers, head of the State Department's Bureau of International 
Narcotics and Law Enforcement, would accompany Powell, and that a brief 
meeting to discuss improved procedures for the aerial drug interdiction 
program had been scheduled.

The U.S. Congress and the Bush administration are waiting for a follow-up 
report being prepared by Morris Busby, a former U.S. ambassador to 
Colombia, before deciding whether to resume the flights. The report is not 
expected for several weeks.

Colombian President Andres Pastrana, who is scheduled to meet Powell later 
Tuesday and Wednesday, also urged Washington to restart the interdiction 
program and re-establish intelligence-sharing about suspected drug flights.

"I think we can truly hit the heart of the business through interdiction, 
and not simply through fumigation" of drug crops, he told reporters on 
Thursday.

Until the mid-1990s, Peru was the world's largest producer of coca, the raw 
material for cocaine, supplying Colombia's Medellin and Cali drug cartels 
before they started growing their own supply.

U.S. officials have largely credited the shift in coca cultivation from 
Peru to Colombia to the controversial policy of intercepting, and sometimes 
shooting down, small planes suspected of smuggling raw cocaine paste from 
Peru to its northern neighbor.

Last year, Washington approved a $1.3 billion aid package, Plan Colombia, 
providing the South American nation with helicopters, troop training and 
crop-spraying aircraft to help eradicate illegal drug crops, which are 
guarded and taxed by armed guerrillas and paramilitaries.
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MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager