Pubdate: Sun,  2 Sep 2001
Source: Associated Press (Wire)
Copyright: 2001 Associated Press
Author: Michael Easterbrook, The Associated Press

GOV'T STUDY RAISES DOUBTS ON DRUGS

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - A government report has raised fresh doubts about 
Washington's drug-fighting strategy in Colombia, saying aerial fumigation 
of crops may be damaging the environment and is failing to curb drug 
production.

The report from the nation's comptroller-general's office urged President 
Andres Pastrana to suspend the spraying of drug crops until scientists can 
study the environmental effects of the herbicide.

"The majority of the environmental damages are irreversible," claimed the 
report, which was released Saturday.

The spraying of cocaine and heroin-producing crops is a major component of 
Pastrana's Plan Colombia, an anti-drug strategy that Washington is 
supporting with $1.3 billion in aid.

Gonzalo de Francisco, Pastrana's top adviser in the drug war, said the 
U.S.-backed plan was on track and that criticism that the sprayings were 
causing environmental damage was unfounded.

"Plan Colombia was never meant to be something that would happen 
overnight," de Francisco said. "I am convinced that we are on the point of 
achieving what we set out to do, which is eradicating drug production in 
Colombia."

The report from Comptroller-General Carlos Ossa's office said the 
eradication campaign has failed to curb the drug industry in Colombia - the 
world's main producer of cocaine and the main exporter of heroin to the 
United States.

The overall acreage of drug crops continue to expand and is moving to other 
areas of the country, and is even jumping the border into neighboring 
countries, the report said.

It urged the government to devise strategies other than forced eradication 
to curb drug production, and said promised social aid for coca farmers 
struggling to switch to legal crops has been insufficient and slow to 
arrive - a point acknowledged by a high-level delegation of the Bush 
administration that visited Colombia last week.

The report cannot force the government to take specific action. However, it 
can be used as a weapon by Plan Colombia's other opponents.

A Bogota judge recently ordered a temporary halt to the fumigations in 
Amazonian Indian lands, acting on a request by the tribes there. That ban 
has since been lifted.

Under the U.S.-backed plan, crop-dusting planes have destroyed some 125,000 
acres of coca - the raw ingredient of cocaine - using the herbicide 
glyphosate. Critics have charged that the herbicide is making people sick 
and polluting the environment. U.S. officials say it is safe.

The drug industry is fueling a 37-year civil conflict pitting the 
guerrillas against the government and the paramilitaries.
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