Pubdate: Fri, 21 Jul 2000
Source: Associated Press
Copyright: 2000 Associated Press
Author: Ken Guggenheim
Cited: Human Rights Watch: http://www.hrw.org/

U.S. MAY MAKE COLOMBIA CONCESSIONS

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

While no decision has been made, Clinton administration officials are
signaling that human rights provisions in the Colombia package won' t
delay the aid, even though the State Department rates Colombia' s
human 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 Office of National Drug
Control Policy.

Human rights advocates, who pressed to get the language in 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 noted 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 its forces 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.

Because of that, the anti-drug aid legislation requires the State
Department to certify Colombia's progress in specific areas of human
rights, such as whether soldiers accused of rights violations were
being promptly suspended and whether paramilitary leaders were being
vigorously prosecuted. The certification must be made 20 days before
money is spent.

Rights advocates say Colombia isn't close to meeting those
conditions.

" There's just no way that the administration can certify them with a
straight face, " said Lisa Haugaard, legislative coordinator for the
Latin American Working Group, a coalition of more than 60
organizations.

The State Department's 1999 human rights report, released in February,
described the Colombian government's rights record as "poor." It said
serious abuses by government forces had not improved over the previous
year, security forces were rarely held accountable for rights
violations and members of security forces sometimes collaborated with
paramilitaries.

"Paramilitary forces find a ready support base within the military and
police, as well as local civilian elites in many areas," the report
said.

The waiver clause allows Clinton to bypass the certification
requirement if he considers it to be in the interest of U.S. national
security.

Two Democratic senators, Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts and Patrick
Leahy of Vermont, wrote Clinton this week urging him not to waive the
requirement, saying the conditions "go to the heart of [Colombia's]
human rights crisis."

Some rights groups suggest the State Department might avoid using the
waiver by certifying Colombia, based on President Andres Pastrana's
commitments to improve human rights.

Pastrana has fired several top generals and recently signed
legislation making genocide and forced disappearances crimes for the
first time.

The groups see those as token measures.

"This is not a matter of discourse. This is not a matter of good will
or nice attitudes or the right speech on human rights. It' s a
question of facts," said Jose Miguel Vivanco, executive director of
the Americas Division of Human Rights Watch.
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