Pubdate: Sat, 23 Feb 2002 Source: New York Times (NY) Copyright: 2002 The New York Times Company Section: International Contact: http://www.nytimes.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298 Author: Christopher Marquis U.S. TO GIVE COLOMBIANS DATA TO HELP FIGHT REBELS WASHINGTON, Feb. 22 - The Bush administration plans to provide military intelligence to the Colombian government for its campaign against Marxist rebels and is rushing spare parts to the country's armed forces, officials said today. Administration lawyers were assembling legal arguments to justify the intelligence-sharing without running afoul of laws limiting American involvement in Colombia to fighting the narcotics trade, not guerrillas. "There are ways that we can support the government of Colombia in this matter very specifically within the current law," said Richard Boucher, the State Department spokesman. The action comes two days after President Andres Pastrana abandoned a three-year effort to reach a peace accord with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, as rebels intensified their attacks. Colombian forces continued to sweep into a demilitarized zone that Mr. Pastrana had ceded to rebel control in 1998. The State Department announced the new help after Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, who was traveling in China, spoke by telephone with Mr. Pastrana. Secretary Powell praised Mr. Pastrana for showing "enormous patience over a long period of time" in trying negotiate a deal with the FARC. "He finally felt he could go no further and he had a responsibility to the people of Colombia to protect them," Secretary Powell added. "We understand the decision he made. We support him." The Colombian government has been clamoring for months for the United States to provide information about rebel movements from such sources as telephone intercepts, aerial surveillance and satellite photos. Luis Alberto Moreno, Colombia's ambassador to Washington, voiced satisfaction at the administration's move. The Pastrana government is also seeking to win permission from the United States to use American- provided combat helicopters and other equipment in the counter-insurgency struggle, he said. "We have been requesting this for some time," Mr. Moreno said. "This was at the heart of providing more security for Colombians." The United States has provided Colombia with military aid and training under a $1.3 billion package called Plan Colombia. In its new budget, the administration is seeking more than $500 million more for Colombia. Troubled by the prospect of being drawn into a 38-year war that shows no sign of abating, Congress has restricted the use of the American aid to the counter-narcotics fight and a directive signed by President Clinton in 2000 bars the use of American intelligence to combat rebels. Secretary Powell has repeatedly said that the United States has no intention of getting involved in combat. Some lawmakers, moreover, express doubts about aiding a military with a poor human rights record and alliances to right-wing paramilitary forces. Administration officials insist that the line between counter-insurgency and counter-narcotics is blurred, since the 16,000-member FARC derives much of its income from trafficking in drugs. A senior administration official today said lawyers are studying how to circumvent the Clinton restriction and provide intelligence to help Colombian troops rout the FARC from the former demilitarized zone, which covers 16,200 square miles. "What Pastrana would like is more information in the former zone," the official said. "Right now we give him information that is strictly limited to counter-narcotics." The lawyers may be aided by directives on intelligence-sharing issued by President Bush in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, officials said. The United States designated the FARC a terrorist organization in 1997. International perceptions of the FARC are hardening, which may provide the administration with backing for a more aggressive counter-insurgency role. After Latin American and European diplomats helped salvage peace talks last month, the rebels unleashed 117 attacks, exploding four car bombs, destroying 33 energy towers and, most spectacularly this week, hijacking a plane and kidnapping a prominent senator, according to the Colombian government. Cesar Gaviria, a former Colombian president who is secretary general of the 34-nation Organization of American States, said the rebels have proved themselves to be "terrorists." He urged governments in Europe and Latin America to abandon notions of the FARC as a legitimate political movement and sever all ties. "There are a lot of countries that have given them sanctuary, support and good treatment," Mr. Gaviria said in an interview. "I think it's going to stop." Josep Pique, the foreign minister of Spain, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, said the E.U. should stiffen its policies toward armed groups. Mr. Pique also expressed firm backing for Plan Colombia, which many European governments had criticized for relying too heavily on a military solution. The senior administration official, who asked not to be named, acknowledged that international opinion has still not coalesced on the best way to deal with the FARC. But from Britain to Mexico, he said, the authorities increasingly favor a stronger stance. "I think 9-11 has really crystallized in Europeans' thinking the danger of the FARC," the official said. People have abandoned the notion that the rebels are "misguided agrarian reformers," he said. "They're narcoterrorists." - --- MAP posted-by: Ariel