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U.S.  EFFORTS HAVE FAILED IN COLOMBIA

Peace in Colombia cannot be achieved through U.S.  military aid and drug crop fumigation.  No matter how many hectares of Colombia, Bolivia or Peru the United States and paid contractors destroy with their aerial-dispersed poisons, not a single cocaine abuser in the United States is any closer to true recovery.

Despite five years of pumping billions of dollars into the Colombian military, the United States is failing on the counter-drug and counter-insurgency fronts.  It is time for a change in strategy.  In spite of U.S.  programs to destroy agricultural land in southern Colombia:

- - The price, purity and availability of drugs in the United States have not changed.

- - Aiding a military with paramilitary links and a poor human-rights record like the Colombian armed forces is unacceptable.

- - Guns and fumigations will neither bring lasting stability to Colombia nor stop the drugs flowing into the United States.

We need to stop destroying other countries' agricultural infrastructure in the futile effort to control the multi-billion dollar cocaine industry.  More funding is needed for programs that provide treatment on demand for any drug abuser who wants it right here at home.

The United States should phase out aerial fumigations while providing income-generating alternatives to illicit crop growth, support peace in Colombia and supporting human rights of all, protecting the victims of war and promoting social and economic development.

Noreen Ordronneau

Carrboro