Pubdate: Wed, 02 Aug 2000
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright: 2000 Los Angeles Times
Contact:  Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles, CA 90053
Fax: (213) 237-4712
Website: http://www.latimes.com/
Forum: http://www.latimes.com/home/discuss/
Author: Juanita Darling, Times Staff Writer

COLOMBIAN REBELS WARN AGAINST USE OF U.S. COPTERS

Latin America: Guerrillas Say Black Hawk Role In Supporting Police Will 
Escalate Nation's Civil War.

LOS POZOS, Colombia--Using U.S.-donated helicopters to reinforce Colombian 
police during guerrilla attacks will escalate this country's prolonged 
civil conflict and draw America closer to direct involvement in the 
fighting, a rebel spokesman warned Tuesday.

Raul Reyes, spokesman for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or 
FARC, this country's oldest and largest guerrilla force, said helicopters 
used to rescue police during attacks will be considered "military targets," 
subject to being shot down.

He made the remarks in this rebel-controlled hamlet a day after State 
Department spokesman Philip T. Reeker said in Washington that the Clinton 
administration will not "second-guess" the way Colombian police decide to 
use Black Hawk helicopters donated by the United States for the fight 
against illegal drugs.

Reeker's statement added fuel to the debate over the U.S. role in Colombia, 
a country where a 36-year conflict has been exacerbated in the past decade 
by drug money that has left both the rebels and the right-wing private 
armies that pursue them better armed than the military.

The helicopters, piloted by Colombian police, have generally been used to 
protect planes that fumigate crops of opium poppies and coca, the raw 
material used to make cocaine. Colombia supplies about three-fourths of the 
world's cocaine and an increasing share of the heroin sold in the United 
States.

After recent guerrilla attacks on police outposts, U.S. congressional 
members who support the Colombian police have criticized the Clinton 
administration for allegedly preventing use of the helicopters for 
reinforcement or rescue operations. When police officers were killed late 
last month in a remote area after guerrillas pinned them down and they ran 
out of ammunition, the U.S. Embassy released a statement denying that the 
ambassador had prohibited the Colombians from sending the helicopters in 
for support.

Weather conditions were blamed for grounding the aircraft both then and 
over the weekend, when a guerrilla incursion left the northern town of 
Arboleda in ruins. Only four of more than two dozen police assigned to the 
town are known to have survived the attack, which was carried out with 
weapons that included gas cylinders hurled like Molotov cocktails.

On Monday, Reeker said the Black Hawks could be used in such situations.

"What they are trying to do is intimidate us," said Reyes, the rebel 
spokesman. "But all that intimidation and threats will achieve is a more 
forceful reply of the Colombians in defense of our national sovereignty.

"This is direct intervention of the United States in the internal affairs 
of Colombia," he said.

The helicopters used by police have been donated over the past two years 
and are not part of the $1.3-billion anti-narcotics aid package approved by 
the U.S. Congress in late June. Reyes called the package "an attack against 
the Colombian peace process," whose negotiations are now entering their 
18th month.

Only two of the helicopters to be supplied as part of the new aid bundle 
are destined for the police. The rest will go to the army to support 
recently formed anti-narcotics battalions.

Both the $289 million in anti-narcotics aid given to Colombia last year and 
the new package are restricted to being used in the fight against drug 
production and trafficking. However, the line between the drug war and the 
guerrilla war in Colombia is often blurred because rebels collect "taxes" 
on drug crops grown in areas under their control.

Further, U.S. congressional supporters of the Colombian police have long 
urged crossing that line.

The most vocal of those, Rep. Benjamin A. Gilman (R-N.Y.), said during a 
conference in Washington last year, "The administration has been so 
preoccupied with avoiding being involved in Colombia's counterinsurgency 
efforts that it has permitted the situation to erode and deteriorate."

However, Reyes disputed the notion that the United States has been 
extra-careful about avoiding counter-guerrilla activities.

"Ever since the Black Hawks arrived, they have been used against us," he 
said. "What [the U.S. is] doing now is publicly recognizing that they can 
be used."

Both civilian pilots flying fumigation planes under contract and helicopter 
pilots protecting them have reported being fired on by rebels over the past 
two years. Guerrillas have said that they fired on the aircraft to protect 
civilians from fumigation chemicals.
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