Pubdate: Thu, 10 Feb 2000
Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer (WA)
Copyright: 2000 Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Contact:  P.O. Box 1909, Seattle, WA 98111-1909
Website: http://www.seattle-pi.com/
Author:  JOHN DONNELLY, THE BOSTON GLOBE

COLOMBIA PLAN WILL LIKELY BE COSTLY, LENGTHY

WASHINGTON -- The Clinton administration's plan to fight drug
cultivation in Colombia includes supporting a push into southern
Colombia that will displace an estimated 10,000 people, and providing
a long list of military equipment likely to cost millions of dollars
in upkeep for years to come.

In a 21-page White House document obtained by The Boston Globe, the
administration outlined for the first time how $1.3 billion in
additional funding to Colombia over the next 18 months would be spent.

The depth of military commitment in the package raises questions about
the length of U.S. commitment beyond 2001 and whether it would aid
Colombia's war against guerrillas as well as fighting cocaine and
heroin exports.

"This aid is a downpayment on a multiyear strategy requiring hundreds
of millions of dollars a year," Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Vermont
Democrat, said yesterday. "Yet the administration has not explained in
any detail what its goals are . . . at what cost, or what the risks
are."

In the coming weeks, Congress is expected to debate the
administration's package to Colombia, already the third-largest
recipient of U.S. foreign aid after Israel and Egypt. While support
from the Democratic administration and Republican leadership in
Congress would seem to ensure passage, there has been growing concern
among members of Congress and Pentagon officials about the wisdom of
deepening U.S. involvement in Colombia's 40-year civil war.

If the assistance package is approved, much of the work would take a
year or more to complete, including the deployment of helicopters,
upgrades of radar systems, and training new anti-drug battalions.

Barry McCaffrey, director of the Office of National Drug Control
Policy and a retired four-star Army general, has been strongly arguing
that the U.S. needs to fight the burgeoning supply of drugs in
Colombia for well beyond the package presented to Congress.

"It's in our interest to stand with their democratic institutions and
not just a year," McCaffrey said in an interview. "This ought to be
multiple years."

Mike Hammer, spokesman for the National Security Council, said
yesterday that the administration would "absolutely not" become
involved in a counterinsurgency effort against Colombia's guerrillas.

"It's not to say that on occasion if you have guerrillas protecting
coca fields that those (U.S. military) assets can't be used to take
out the coca fields and the guerrillas will come into harm's way," he
said.
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