Pubdate: Fri, 26 Apr 2002 Source: China Daily (China) Contact: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/911 Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?172 (Peruvian Aircraft Shooting) PERU SEES DRUG FLIGHTS RELAUNCH, WASHINGTON MUM Peru expects the United States soon to announce it will resume a program to catch drug flights in the Latin American country that was halted after the shooting of an American missionary plane, officials said on Thursday, but Washington said no decision had been made. "The information we have received from a good source is that a high- ranking US official is apparently set to make the announcement (to relaunch drug flights) on Monday," said Ricardo Vega Llona, who handed his job as Peru's first anti-drug "czar" to successor Nils Ericsson on Thursday. The United States until last year sponsored an aerial drugs interdiction program, supported by the CIA, in conjunction with the Peruvian military, over Peru and Colombia, the world's top two cocaine producing nations. Americans helped staff surveillance planes and alerted Peruvian forces to suspected drug-trafficking flights. But the surveillance program came to a dramatic halt in April 2001 after a Peruvian Air Force jet mistakenly shot down a civilian plane, killing an American missionary and her baby. Vega Llona called the information on resumption of the program "preliminary" and said, "We still need final confirmation." A State Department official in Washington, however, said, "No final decision has been made on resuming the interdiction program in Peru and Colombia." Only US President George W. Bush can make the decision, officials said. Peru has been pushing for resumption of the CIA-backed program, which has been criticized by US lawmakers but which Peru says is vital for fighting drugs. Vega Llona's comments came a month after the Bush administration said it wanted to see those planes in the air again, fast. In connection with last year's shootdown, the White House has said it would pay the dead missionary's family compensation but would not admit liability. According to Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo, the surveillance program is an essential weapon for this cash-strapped nation in curbing the illegal drugs trade. Peru was praised in the 1990s for cracking down on drugs, but officials are warning cultivation figures could creep back up. Vega Llona leaves his drugs czar post to head a new agency designed to boost private investment and privatization plans. His replacement, Ericsson, comes from the National Coca Company, which sells coca leaf -- the raw material for cocaine -- for traditional, legal uses like chewing and in teas. - --- MAP posted-by: Josh