Pubdate: Sat, 22 Jul 2000
Source: San Diego Union Tribune (CA)
Copyright: 2000 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
Contact:  PO Box 120191, San Diego, CA, 92112-0191
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Author: Ken Guggenheim, Associated Press

MORE DRUG AID FOR COLOMBIA LIKELY

WASHINGTON -- For Colombia to get fresh U.S. drug-fighting aid, President 
Clinton probably will have to exempt it from fine print that ties the money 
to improvements in its human rights record.

Though no decision has been made, administration officials are signaling 
that human rights provisions in the Colombia package will not delay the 
aid, even though the State Department rates Colombia's rights record as poor.

"You don't hold up the major objective to achieve the minor," said Brad 
Hittle, an official with the White House drug office.

Human rights advocates, who pressed to get the language into the Colombia 
aid legislation, are braced for the setback of a presidential waiver.

"If they want the aid to go -- and there's a lot of pressure for it to go 
- -- the only way they can do that is by invoking the waiver," said Andrew 
Miller of Amnesty International USA.

Hittle said the administration wants to comply with "the spirit of the law" 
and work with Colombia on human rights, but the top priority is "to get the 
aid flowing" to help Colombian authorities stop violence by guerrillas and 
paramilitaries.

He said the aid includes about $50 million for human rights programs.

Colombia is receiving the bulk of a $1.3 billion aid package aimed mostly 
at helping it wrest control of cocaine-producing regions from leftist 
guerrillas and, to a lesser extent, right-wing paramilitaries protecting 
the drug trade. Colombia is the world's leading producer of cocaine and a 
growing supplier of heroin.

Rights groups have opposed the aid, fearing it will escalate the conflict 
and help paramilitaries tied to the Colombian army. The paramilitaries are 
accused of being the worst violators of rights in Colombia's civil war, 
torturing and killing civilians they believe linked to guerrillas.
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