Pubdate: Fri, 02 Mar 2001
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Copyright: 2001 The Washington Post Company
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Authors: Helen Dewar and Alan Sipress, Washington Post Staff Writers

KEY SENATORS SEEK CHANGES IN ANTI-DRUG CERTIFICATION

As the State Department issued the annual certification of drug-fighting 
efforts by foreign countries, key senators from both parties yesterday 
stepped up their campaign to overhaul the process, arguing it is obsolete 
and self-defeating.

Senators said at a hearing before the Foreign Relations Committee that at 
least four bills have been introduced in the Senate. One would streamline 
the yearly review and another would suspend it for two years while the 
United States crafts a new multinational approach to fight drug trafficking.

Under a 15-year-old law, the president must certify each March that major 
drug-producing and drug-transit countries are working with the United 
States in combating narcotics. Those countries deemed not to be cooperating 
vigorously enough can lose most forms of U.S. assistance unless they 
receive a waiver because of their importance to the U.S. national interest.

The list released yesterday gives failing grades to four countries: Burma, 
Cambodia, Haiti and Afghanistan, which administration officials singled out 
for a 25 percent increase in opium production over the last year. 
Afghanistan accounts for 72 percent of the global supply, they said.

Cambodia and Haiti were given waivers out of concern that severing American 
aid could undercut efforts to foster democracy and promote stability, State 
Department officials said. Two other countries that failed to be certified 
last year, Nigeria and Paraguay, were upgraded after the administration 
concluded they had redoubled drug-fighting efforts.

The annual report card was issued at a time when Secretary of State Colin 
L. Powell is suggesting that the administration should rethink its 
certification policy. At his Senate confirmation hearing in January, Powell 
said he would propose a suspension of the process to see if a better 
approach can be developed.

The reasons that Congress is concerned about the process were laid out 
yesterday by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Tex.), who said, "The drug 
certification ritual results in resentment and is counterproductive."

The process has "worked in fits and starts" over the years, often producing 
cooperation where it had not existed before, said Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. 
(D-Del.), ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and 
co-author of the 15-year-old drug certification program.

But, with new governments in such countries as Mexico and Colombia and with 
their presidents "putting their lives on the line" to fight drugs, "this is 
a different world" now, Biden added. He supports a two-year suspension.

One of the main proposals, sponsored by Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), 
who has been a staunch backer of the current program, would replace it with 
a simple grant of authority to the president to impose sanctions on 
countries that fail to meet certain international standards for 
cooperation. Congress could add countries to the list.

Another leading proposal, sponsored by Sens. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.), 
John McCain (R-Ariz.) and others, would provide for a two-year suspension 
of the certification process while the United States and other countries 
work on what Dodd describes as an "enhanced multilateral strategy" toward 
drug control.

Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Phil Gramm (R-Tex.) are cosponsoring a 
proposal that would exempt from the certification prgram countries with 
bilateral anti-drug agreements with the United States.

In his testimony before the committee, R. Rand Beers, assistant secretary 
of state for international narcotics and law enforcement affairs, defended 
the certification process but indicated the administration is open to 
alternatives.

"We believe that it is appropriate to consider how the current process 
might be altered to better reflect the changes in the international 
situation that have occurred since narcotics certification was first 
introduced," Beers said.

He added that if the process is suspended, the president must retain the 
power to penalize countries that do not adequately cooperate. Nor, he said, 
should countries or regions be exempted from review.

President Vicente Fox of Mexico in particular has criticized the process. 
During President Bush's visit to Mexico last month, he assured Fox that he 
would vouch for Mexico's effort to "root out the drug lords."

In releasing the annual narcotics report, administration officials were 
effusive in describing Mexico's performance. Mexico "in the course of last 
year has done some extraordinary, record-setting, I'd almost want to 
classify it as world-class in both opium-production and 
marijuana-production eradication programs," said Robert E. Brown Jr., of 
the Office of National Drug Control Policy. He praised both the efforts of 
the Mexican military and the number of drug seizures made in the last year.

But Brown added that Mexican efforts to crack down on trafficking continue 
to face challenges from "corruption and powerful criminal groups."
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