Pubdate: Wed, 30 May 2001
Source: International Herald-Tribune (France)
Section: News, Pg 2
Website: http://www.iht.com/
Address: 181, Avenue Charles de Gaulle, 92521 Neuilly Cedex, France
Contact:  International Herald Tribune 2001
Fax: (33) 1 41 43 93 38
Author: Juan Forero, New York Times Service

U.S. AND EUROPE DIFFER OVER COLOMBIAN DRUGS

Cocaine Trafficking To Continent Is Rising

BOGOTA  As cocaine use in the United States has leveled off, trafficking to 
Europe from Colombia and other cocaine-producing South American countries 
has picked up, increasing at a particularly rapid pace since the mid-1990s, 
according to the latest U.S. data.

Estimates by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy 
indicate that up to 220 tons of cocaine now flow to Europe annually, as 
much as double the amount in 1996.

The United States, by comparison, receives about 330 tons annually, a 
figure that has remained stable in recent years as consumption by casual 
users has fallen.

"It is certainly true that a bigger portion of cocaine goes to Europe than 
previously," said Klaus Nyholm, who oversees the UN Drug Control Program's 
office in Colombia. "The U.S. was the country of cocaine consumption par 
excellence, while heroin and opiates were for Asia and Europe. What we see 
now is that the markets are coming to look more and more alike."

Europol, the European Union's fledgling police agency, said in a recent 
report that 35 percent of Colombia's cocaine was winding up in the Union, 
entering mainly through Spain and the Netherlands. Seizures in member 
nations reached 43 tons in 1999, the report said, up 37 percent from the 
year before.

The Spanish police seized more than 590 kilograms (1,300 pounds) of cocaine 
over the weekend in the Galician port of Vigo, the Civil Guard said Sunday.

The dire warning from U.S. officials, some of whom say Europe is facing a 
crisis, has irked some European officials and drug policy experts.

They question Washington's assessment and view the new data as part of its 
effort to obtain more aid for Colombia's war on drugs, which was created 
with U.S. pressure and involvement.

"There is very little sympathy and understanding," Martin Jelsma, a drug 
policy expert in the Netherlands, said of how Europeans view U.S. policy 
toward Colombia.

"Based on private conversations I've had this year with officials from 
several European countries, the rejection of the current U.S. drug policy 
approach to Colombia is growing very clearly," added Mr. Jelsma, of the 
Transnational Institute, which analyzes drug use and international trafficking.

That approach relies on the U.S. expenditure of $1.3 billion, most of it in 
military assistance, for the aerial spraying of herbicides on coca fields.

The Europeans have in general resisted supporting what they view as a 
military-style strategy that they say could intensify Colombia's 
37-year-long conflict with leftist rebels, who are active in coca-growing 
areas and profit from the drug trade. The European Union instead recently 
pledged $293 million for social development programs in Colombia's 
impoverished countryside.

"There has been a tendency in Europe to look at the Colombian problem as 
one of the Colombians, of course, and the United States," said a 
high-ranking European official knowledgeable about drug interdiction 
efforts. "The Europeans are clearly dragging their feet. They are engaging 
more, yes, but from a very low level."

The Americans are irritated by Europe's stance. And in private 
conversations, U.S. officials acknowledge working diplomatic channels to 
obtain more aid for Colombia.

"It's big business in Europe, and we think it's going to get a lot bigger," 
one U.S. State Department official said of the cocaine trade. "And we're 
trying to convince the Europeans to get concerned about it."

Robert Brown, acting deputy director for supply reduction at the White 
House Office of National Drug Control Policy, which analyzes worldwide 
consumption and trafficking data, said, "There is a definite, unmistakable 
upward trend."

Large-scale cocaine trafficking to Europe was first detected in the 1980s, 
when Colombian drug cartels, battered by aggressive law enforcement, opened 
new routes to that largely untapped market. The demand in Europe remained 
relatively modest through the early 1990s, dwarfed by a seemingly 
unquenchable appetite in the United States.

The Colombians, for their part, have in recent months more openly pleaded 
for aid from European governments. Speaking of the common goal of 
eradicating drugs, President Andres Pastrana has traveled to Europe and met 
here with numerous European delegations.

Other Colombians present the issue in starker terms. "They have been 
ashamed to say they have a problem, even though everyone sees what is 
happening," Rosso Jose Serrano, the former director of the Colombian 
National Police, said of the Europeans. "It seems to me that this is what 
happened in the United States, that they only took notice after the place 
was inundated with cocaine."

The Europeans bristle under such criticism, saying an emphasis on treatment 
and education in their own countries is a more viable solution to drug use.

European drug experts say that U.S. high-tech interdiction efforts and 
harsh enforcement inside the United States have had little impact in 
curtailing the flow of drugs to American users, an assertion that many U.S. 
drug experts do not dispute.

The Europeans strongly oppose aerial spraying of coca crops in Colombia, 
which they say fails to address the country's deep social problems. Their 
opposition was highlighted in February when the European Parliament voted 
474 to 1 to reject the U.S.-supported spraying program in Colombia.

Europeans generally acknowledge that cocaine use, along with that of other 
drugs, is up, but they say U.S. data exaggerate the increase.

"It's a slow increase," said Ingo Michels, who runs the office for the 
German drug commissioner.
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