Pubdate: Mon, 07 May 2001
Source: Detroit News (MI)
Copyright: 2001, The Detroit News
Contact:  http://www.detnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/126
Author: Andrew Selsky, Assciated Press

COLOMBIANS TRAIN FOR DRUG WAR

U.S.-Backed Battalions, Screened For Trafficking, Abuse, Will Join Battle

LARANDIA ARMY BASE, Colombia -- U.S. Green Beret trainers watched proudly 
as Colombian troops reacted to an "ambush" with a withering blast of 
gunfire and by hurling hand grenades.

The aggressive response during training exercises -- opened for the first 
time to journalists on Friday -- was one the U.S. Special Forces have been 
instilling into their charges, who will soon combat drug trafficking in an 
area swarming with rebels and paramilitaries.

The battalion will finish its months-long training in this sprawling jungle 
base on May 24, and will join two other counternarcotics battalions -- a 
total of 3,000 soldiers -- that have been trained by the Green Berets since 
April 1999.

Amid criticism from human rights groups and even the U.S. State Department 
that Colombian security forces have a poor human rights record, the U.S. 
Embassy investigated each of the 3,000 soldiers to make sure they have not 
been accused of abuses or drug trafficking.

But they will likely be conducting joint anti-drug operations with 
Colombian counterguerrilla battalions which have not undergone such 
scrutiny -- and which have a reputation of maintaining covert links with 
the paramilitary United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, which has been 
massacring suspected rebel collaborators.

Army Gen. Mario Montoya, the commander of Colombia's southern region where 
the U.S.-trained battalions will be based, rejected allegations by human 
rights groups that some army units are fighting a dirty war against rebels.

"If we were as bloodthirsty as people say, the war would have been over by 
now -- we would have killed all the bad guys," Montoya said.

The newly trained troops will join the other two counternarcotics 
battalions in operations against coca plantations and drug labs, mostly in 
Putumayo and Caqueta states, which together produce more than 60 percent of 
Colombia's cocaine.

The U.S backing of Colombia's military, which has been fighting a 37-year 
war against rebels, has some critics suspecting the assistance is more 
geared at helping wipe out the rebellion instead of stemming drug trafficking.

Since the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia -- the biggest rebel group 
- -- earns millions of dollars by protecting and taxing drug crops, as do the 
rival paramilitaries, the U.S.-trained troops will have wide clearance to 
launch attacks.

Under the $1.3-billion U.S. aid package, 16 Blackhawk and 25 Super Huey 
helicopters will begin arriving in July for the counternarcotics battalions.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens