Pubdate: Sat, 29 Jul 2000
Source: Miami Herald (FL)
Copyright: 2000 The Miami Herald
Contact:  One Herald Plaza, Miami FL 33132-1693
Fax: (305) 376-8950
Website: http://www.herald.com/
Forum: http://krwebx.infi.net/webxmulti/cgi-bin/WebX?mherald
Author: Juan O. Tamayo

U.S. COPTERS NOW DEFENDING COLOMBIA COPS

The Heavily Armed And Armored Helicopters Are Owned By The State Department 
And Leased To The Colombian Police, Which Uses Them To Protect Fumigation 
Planes And Ground Forces Destroying Coca And Opium Poppy Fields.

BOGOTA -- U.S.-owned attack helicopters leased to Colombian police for 
counter-narcotics missions can be used to defend security forces from 
guerrillas in drug-producing areas, a U.S. official here said.

Indeed, the official, who insisted on anonymity, added that some of the six 
UH-60 Black Hawks, all of which are piloted by members of the Colombian 
national police force, have already been used to defend besieged police and 
army units under rules of engagement that allow their deployment for 
"defensive force protection."

The explanation of the rules was provided following a harsh complaint by 
U.S. Rep. Benjamin Gilman, R-N.Y., that tight restrictions could prevent 
their deployment in firefights and result in needless government casualties.

Although the explanation was intended to allay fears that rules were too 
restrictive, critics of the rapidly growing U.S. counter-narcotics aid to 
Colombia said just the opposite: that it opens the door to increased U.S. 
participation in the country's war against 20,000 guerrillas.

"That's a big leap down the slippery slope because police units are 
attacked somewhere in Colombia every day," said Adam Isacson, senior 
associate at the Center for International Policy, a Washington, D.C., think 
tank.

Gilman, chairman of the House International Relations Committee and a 
strong advocate of easing the restrictions, went public after 13 policemen 
in the town of Roncesvalles were killed in a guerrilla attack as three 
police-piloted Black Hawks sat unused a 20-minute flight away.

While police officials said the aircraft could not have aided the unit 
helped in any case -- the attack took place at night -- the incident 
sparked a quiet but intense debate over the exact meaning of the rules of 
engagement.

"This is a matter of policy catching up to reality," said one Clinton 
administration official.

For months, the administration has been reassuring congressional skeptics 
that increased aid to Colombia -- including a $1.3 billion package approved 
this month -- would not spill over to the country's 35-year-old guerrilla war.

The Black Hawks "are to be used . . . for counter-narcotics law enforcement 
activities only, except in times of natural disaster or other emergency to 
prevent loss of life or otherwise engage in humanitarian undertakings," 
Assistant Secretary of State Barbara Larkin wrote Gilman last year.

The heavily armed and armored helicopters are owned by the State Department 
and leased to the Colombian police, which uses them to protect fumigation 
planes and ground forces destroying coca and opium poppy fields.

The U.S. official in Bogota said the aircraft have already been used for 
"defensive force protection" on several occasions, but declined to go into 
details. "The rules are very strict," he said. "If it's a force-protection 
issue involving counter-narcotics units, involved in specific 
counter-narcotics activity . . . then our rules say we can support."

He added that "counter-narcotics activity" meant even police merely 
stationed in areas where narcotics crops are cultivated. Guerrillas are 
concentrated in coca and opium poppy-growing regions.

The official noted that the town of Roncesvalles, 110 miles southwest of 
Bogota, lies in the heart of a major poppy-growing area. ``We certainly 
have had no complaints [from police] about the use of the Black Hawks so 
far,'' he said.

But Roncesvalles "was not a counter-drug operation. That was the 
[guerrillas] beating up on police," said James Zackrison, a Colombia 
specialist at the Center for Counter Terrorism Studies in Arlington, Va.

"Humanitarian aid is when you evacuate the wounded. If you go in and make 
contact with guerrillas attacking a police unit . . . that's combat 
support," Zackrison added.

The U.S. official said the rules of engagement are tighter for the 20 
aircraft here operated directly by State Department counter-narcotics 
programs and piloted by U.S. and Latin American civilians under contract. 
They fly fumigation planes, armed aircraft that protect the crop dusters 
from ground fire and armed search and rescue helicopters in case a 
fumigation pilot crashes or is shot down.

Colombian security forces are known to have occasionally called on the 
U.S.-operated helicopters to help rescue downed military and police pilots, 
but few details of those incidents have become public.

U.S. units are limited to assisting Colombian units directly involved in 
counter-narcotics operations, the official said, declining further comment 
on past incidents.

U.S.-operated aircraft are often hit by ground fire, but none has ever been 
shot down.
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MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager