Pubdate: Wed, 11 Aug 1999 Source: Reuters Copyright: 1999 Reuters Limited. US DRUG CHIEF SAYS COLOMBIA IS EVERYONE'S PROBLEM HOUSTON - U.S. drug chief Barry McCaffrey said Wednesday that Colombia's mounting social chaos has become a regional problem requiring the ``political involvement'' of other nations. But he said violence-wracked Colombia, which is battling drug-financed guerrillas and paramilitary groups, would have to fight its own military battles. McCaffrey said Colombia's problems were spilling over into neighboring countries, which he said he will visit in coming weeks to ``hear their ideas'' about what should be done. ``The argument is that this is not Colombia's problem, this is a regional problem and they need the political involvement of all of us in the hemisphere,'' he said at a news conference. Colombia is the world's top cocaine producer and home to the longest-running civil conflict in the Western Hemisphere. Half the country is controlled by armed groups and heroin and cocaine output is up sharply, producing profits that drug traffickers share with leftist guerrillas, McCaffrey said. He said allies could help wean Colombia from drug profits and improve the country's institutions, including its criminal justice system. But military assistance would be limited, he said. ``When it comes down to actually confronting the (guerrillas) and the paramilitaries, that's Colombia's job. That's got to be their police, their prosecutors, their laws, their armed forces -- that's not our effort,'' he said. ``We can support them with resources, training, equipment, intelligence. 2E.. We're clearly trying to support them with drug-related intelligence,'' McCaffrey said. The United States spends $289 million annually to fight drugs in Colombia, but McCaffrey has proposed raising U.S. aid to $1 billion next year. 46ive U.S. servicemen were killed last month when their drug surveillance plane was shot down over southern Colombia. McCaffrey rejected any suggestion that Colombia quickly could reduce its violence by legalizing drugs. ``It doesn't make any more sense for their society than it does for ours. It's just not going to happen,'' he said. McCaffrey was in Houston to sign an agreement with local officials on a program to reduce illegal drug use. - --- MAP posted-by: Derek Rea