Pubdate: Thu, 20 Dec 2001
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2001 The New York Times Company
Contact:  http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Section: International
Author: Christopher Marquis

U.S. TELLS COLOMBIA TO IMPROVE RIGHTS RECORD BEFORE IT GETS AID

WASHINGTON, Dec. 19 -- The House attached a series of conditions to 
American aid to Colombia today, demanding that the government hold 
right-wing paramilitary groups and their military allies accountable for 
violence there. The Senate, which initiated the restrictions, is expected 
to concur.

Under the conditions, the secretary of state must certify that the 
commander of the Colombian armed forces suspends troops that violate human 
rights and make them available for prosecution in civilian courts. The 
Colombian military must also sever links to paramilitary groups that have 
thrived, often with military intelligence and supplies, in an increasingly 
brutal showdown with leftist guerrillas.

"The Congress wants to provide assistance, but not a blank check, given the 
history of the Colombian armed forces and the abuses that have gone on, as 
well as the failures of the Colombian judicial system to hold people 
accountable," said Tim Rieser, an aide to Senator Patrick J. Leahy, the 
Vermont Democrat, who sponsored the language.

At stake is more than $300 million in United States assistance, which the 
Bush administration has earmarked for Colombia as part of a regional Andean 
counter-drug program. The United States has already allocated $1.3 billion 
in mostly military aid under Plan Colombia, which started under President 
Clinton.

Administration officials said they would support the conditions on the aid 
and expected the Colombian government to take additional steps to halt 
violence from the right. Lorne W. Craner, the assistant secretary for human 
rights, delivered that message in Colombia in meetings this week with 
President Andres Pastrana and military leaders, officials said.

"We are fully in agreement that we need to get the Colombian government to 
do more," said one official. "We're fairly confident the Colombians will 
respond with what's necessary."

While some American diplomats complained that Congress was intruding into 
Mr. Bush's direction of foreign policy, they said they did not believe the 
measures would disrupt the flow of aid or overall antidrug strategy in 
Colombia.

The conditions were outlined in a conference report on spending on foreign 
operations that was approved by the House today and goes to the Senate on 
Thursday.

The conditions include the gradual release of the aid, with 40 percent of 
the funds held up pending another State Department certification of 
improved conditions, and a requirement that the United States deny visas to 
members of paramilitary groups and their supporters.

In addition, lawmakers are requiring that the American-backed fumigation 
program to eradicate coca meets the same health and safety standards that 
would apply in the United States. Some Colombian farmers and 
environmentalists have voiced concerns that widespread spraying of the 
herbicide glyphosate endangers residents and their land.

The Bush administration counters that the aerial spraying is benign and has 
been highly successful in curbing production in some regions of Colombia.

The United States has long been critical of the human rights record of the 
Colombian security forces. In February the State Department reported that 
"the armed forces and the police committed serious violations of human 
rights" throughout the previous year.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom