Pubdate: Thu, 24 Aug 2000 Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA) Copyright: 2000 San Jose Mercury News Contact: 750 Ridder Park Drive, San Jose, CA 95190 Fax: (408) 271-3792 Website: http://www.sjmercury.com/ Author: Marc Lacey, New York Times COLOMBIA DOING BETTER ON RIGHTS, CLINTON SAYS President Explains Why He Authorized Anti-Drug Aid WASHINGTON -- President Clinton on Wednesday defended his decision to sign a waiver freeing up $1.3 billion in anti-drug assistance for Colombia, saying the country is improving on human rights even though the government of Andres Pastrana has yet to meet all the conditions imposed by Congress. "I did it because I believe President Pastrana is committed to dealing with the human rights issues, about which we're still very concerned,'' said Clinton, who signed the national security waiver Tuesday night, a week before he flies to Colombia for a brief trip. Congress voted in July to support a White House request for economic and military aid to Colombia, a package designed to interrupt the flow of cocaine and heroin to the United States. Aid for training, reform The aid package, called Plan Colombia, includes $1 billion to train and equip the army and police forces of Colombia, as well as additional funds to promote economic development, judicial reform and human rights improvements. Congress put conditions on the assistance amid concerns about the Colombian military's human rights record and ties to paramilitary groups. But lawmakers said Clinton could waive the conditions for national security reasons. Clinton's use of the waiver was widely expected but it still drew criticism from some members of Congress and human rights organizations, who accused him of overlooking the Colombian military's record. "There is no need or justification for waiving the conditions,'' said Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., who pushed for conditions on the aid. ``These conditions are nothing more than what the Colombian government and our administration said they would do, and this is not too much to ask.'' Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn., an opponent of the aid package, was even more critical. "A waiver that ignores Colombia's abysmal human rights situation gives the green light to the Colombian military to continue business as usual,'' Wellstone said. But Clinton, in a Rose Garden appearance Wednesday with reporters, said the situation in Colombia was too precarious to wait. "I think we've protected our fundamental interests in human rights and enabled Plan Colombia to have a chance to succeed, which I think is very, very important for the long-term stability of democracy and human rights in Colombia and for protecting the American people and the Colombia people from the drug traffic,'' the president said. Among the conditions imposed by Congress were requirements that the military suspend personnel believed to have committed human rights violations and that it set up a judge advocate general corps to investigate abuses. Of seven conditions overall, Pastrana has satisfied only one, by issuing a statement warning the military that soldiers accused of human rights abuses will be tried in the country's civilian courts. But Clinton, exercising a waiver on the ground of national security, declared that a ``drug emergency'' exists in Colombia and that Pastrana is making progress on human rights. The president said the United States could still turn down specific military units for aid if abuses are uncovered. 2005 target Administration officials said that while Colombia is improving its human rights climate, it is unlikely to meet one condition imposed by Congress -- that it eliminate the country's total coca and opium poppy production by 2005. The Colombian government has a goal of eliminating half its drug crop over the next five years, officials said. Eliminating all the cultivation, the officials said, would require even more resources. "Colombia confronts a drug emergency that directly affects the United States,'' the White House said in a memorandum justifying the waiver. ``In spite of aggressive counter-drug efforts, coca cultivation in Colombia has increased 140 percent over the last five years. This massive rate of increase threatens to reverse the counter-drug successes in Peru and Bolivia.'' - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens