Pubdate: Mon, 12 Oct 1998 Source: Scotsman (UK) Contact: (c) ŠThe Scotsman Publications Ltd Website: http://www.scotsman.com/ Author: ALEX BLAIR, Foreign Affairs Reporter TRIAL BEGINS FOR BRITISH ACADEMIC ON DRUGS CHARGES A LEADING British novelist and anthropologist goes on trial in Bolivia today charged with drug-trafficking and facing a jail sentence of up to 25 years. The case begins just days after the La Paz government commissioned Dr Alison Spedding to undertake a research project from within prison into the local culture of the Aymara Indians. Arrested on 30 March with two kilos of marijuana after a tip-off by a police informer, Dr Spedding has spent the last six months in La Paz's women's jail. At the time, she was preparing to fly home to discuss publication of her latest novel, 'Money Like Water', with her publisher, HarperCoIlins. Having unearthed the cannabis and UKP1,500 travel money, Bolivia's narcotics police accused the university lecturer of selling cannabis to her students, and took into custody two Aymaran Indians, Flora, and her daughter, Miriam, whom Dr Spedding is supporting through university. The academic now faces three charges of drug-trafficking, inducement to consumption and criminal association. An inveterate traveller, the flamboyant anthropologist settled in Bolivia nine years ago, taking up a post as lecturer at San Andres University. In 1993, she wrote 'Wachu Wachu', a study of the cultivation of coca and its role in the Andean identity. Following the collapse of the tin market in the late 1970s - tin is Bolivia's principal export - many workers took to growing and selling coca to support themselves. However, in an effort to win international aid, the previous government began stamping out coca production and introduced law 1,008, for which the possession of any drug carries a sentence of 25 years. Dr Spedding has been vocal in supporting the coca farmers, who believe the destruction of coca fields will force them off their land and into ruin. Initially, her arrest was thought to be linked to her support of the Aymara Indians so the latest anthropological research commission by the government came as something of a surprise to her mother, Maureen Raybauld, who visited her daughter in jail in July. "She was astonished, but pleased, because after her arrest they froze her bank accounts. Now they are paying her $4,000 for her work, which means she can keep Flora and Miriam quite comfortably and put something aside for legal fees." Dr Spedding has already received $1,300 in advance and managed to hide $300 of it among her belongings in jail to supplement her meagre 30 US cents dally living allowance. "It's bizarre,' says Mrs Raybauld. "Of course she won't be able to do the research herself, but her students will do the legwork in the mountains, and she'll write it up in jail." Despite the prison's efforts to instil feminine virtues into the prisoners, in cooking for the officers and playing netball, Dr Spedding has successfully continued teaching her students. "Her students have been very supportive," says her mother. "Every Thursday a group of students comes along for their lecture and every other day of the week they are popping in and out with their theses to be marked." In return, they buy her and Flora and Miriam food to supplement the piece of bread, mug of tea and bowl of soup and potatoes, which make up the daily rations. Born in Belper, Derbyshire, the 36-year-old novelist first studied social anthropology at King's College, Cambridge, before travelling in Latin America and China and returning for a doctorate at the London School of Economics. Realistically, Dr Spedding says she expects to be sentenced to a six-year jail-term, three of which she will have to serve in prison. Academics campaigning for her release will hope it is less, so that she may continue in her quest to preserve the Aymaran culture. "She knew the laws, she broke them and is taking the consequences," says Mrs Raybould, "but Bolivia is so poor. it needs education and someone like Alison to preserve the Indian culture." - --- Checked-by: Don Beck