Pubdate: Wed, 30 Aug 2000 Source: Washington Post (DC) Copyright: 2000 The Washington Post Company Contact: 1150 15th Street Northwest, Washington, DC 20071 Feedback: http://washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/edit/letters/letterform.htm Website: http://www.washingtonpost.com/ Author: Karen DeYoung, Washington Post Staff Writer COLOMBIA READIES FOR CLINTON CARTAGENA, Colombia, Aug. 29 - As a student of U.S. politics, Colombian President Andres Pastrana knows the importance of bipartisan support--particularly in a U.S. government with different parties in charge of Congress and the White House. "It's important to show that the [U.S.] anti-drug policy is a bipartisan policy," Pastrana said in an interview today. Other than a brief private meeting with President Clinton, all events during Wednesday's presidential visit here will include the 11-member congressional delegation that will accompany the president aboard Air Force One. At the head of the group are House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) and Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (Del.), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The large delegation also offers Pastrana an opportunity to twist arms on a subject nearly as important to him--perhaps more important in the long run--than the $1.3 billion U.S. anti-drug aid package that Clinton will symbolically deliver. "This is an opportunity to work toward a trade agreement with the United States that we can complete before the end of the year," Pastrana said. Although Colombia's dire economic situation has improved somewhat since last year, Pastrana would like to cement his country's ever closer relationship with the United States with an accord that would give Colombian products easier access to U.S. markets. Bogota failed this year to become included in the revamping of the U.S. Caribbean Basin Initiative. If Bogota cannot be grandfathered into that free-trade accord, Pastrana said, he is "looking for a bilateral trade agreement" or admission into the North American Free Trade Agreement. Clinton, in a speech broadcast tonight to the Colombian people, did not mention trade. He touched on more immediate issues involving the anti-drug aid package that has been the subject of popular concern and, Pastrana and Clinton agree, confusion here over what is widely considered a plan for increased U.S. military assistance against armed guerrilla groups threatening the Colombian government. While nearly 80 percent of the U.S. package will pay for military equipment and training to counter drug trafficking, both governments argue that it remains only a small part of an overall $7.5 billion package--called Plan Colombia--funded by Colombia and other nations to help peasant coca and poppy growers switch to other crops and to strengthen Colombia's democratic institutions. Clinton acknowledged U.S. interest in stemming the traffic that floods the United States with cocaine and heroin and funds left-wing guerrillas and right-wing paramilitary groups here. But, he said, "please do not misunderstand our purpose. We have no military objective. We do not believe your conflict has a military solution. We support the peace process. Our approach is both pro-peace and anti-drug." The largest guerrilla group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, has denounced what it calls U.S. military intervention in its war against the government. But Pastrana said "the FARC has nothing to fear from Plan Colombia. They say they're not involved in drug trafficking . . . that they're against drug trafficking. Plan Colombia is against drug trafficking. So if they mean what they say, they have nothing to fear." The FARC has said it is willing to eradicate coca crops in the Switzerland-sized zone it occupies in south-central Colombia. "Here's a proposal for them," Pastrana said. "They have said they're willing to eradicate drugs. . . . Why don't they start in the zone?" Responding to charges from U.S. and Colombian human rights groups that the Colombian military should be ineligible for U.S. aid because of its record of human rights abuses and paramilitary ties, Pastrana said progress has been made, and more is coming. "We have the facts and the figures to show we have moved forward," he said. "We know we have a lot more to do." In addition to pledging more military pressure against the paramilitary groups, he said his government is prepared to pursue Colombian civilians who finance them. "It's not only that there are relations between some in the military and the paramilitary groups," Pastrana said. "The problem is who is paying for them. We're going to go after those who are financing them and hold them responsible, too." Despite the size of the U.S. delegation--which includes Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright and Attorney General Janet Reno--Clinton will spend only eight hours in Cartagena. In addition to the government meetings, members of the delegation will visit the city's port, where they will meet with widows of police officers and soldiers killed in action. Before leaving, the delegation will walk a block or two through the 16th-century city, ending at the central Plaza Bolivar. Workers and painters putting the finishing touches on Cartagena's cleanup jostled there today with Colombian police officers and U.S. agents who are part of a vast security operation to protect Clinton. - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D