Pubdate: Wed, 27 Mar 2002 Source: Miami Herald (FL) Copyright: 2002 The Miami Herald Contact: http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/262 Author: Jutta Meier-Wiedenbach Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n559/a03.html RETHINK AID TO COLOMBIA It is easy to agree that ''Colombia's bloody civil war has escalated with a vengeance'' (Aid to Colombia, March 20 editorial). However, it is doubtful that more U.S. military aid will put an end to the violence. It hasn't so far: Violence caused over 3,500 civilian victims last year alone, and coca production has increased in spite of the war on drugs. It is more likely that more military aid will further feed the war, strengthening the resolve of right-wing paramilitary groups, known as the AUC, that engage in the most brutal human-rights violations against civilians. The AUC is one of the Colombian groups on the U.S. terrorist list. Mary Robinson, United Nations high commissioner for human rights, recently said that ``the activities of paramilitary groups constituted the main cause of these [human rights] violations, and the state cannot ignore its responsibilities.'' Human-rights organizations have documented widespread tacit and active support by the Colombian army for illegal paramilitary organizations. Robinson's report on Colombia describes several AUC massacres in which the military received advance warning of the attacks but did not intervene. In other words, military aid to the Colombian military is indirectly supporting an organization that the U.S. government classifies as terrorist. It is time to rethink aid to Colombia. We should support efforts for peace instead of feeding a war that has, as was pointed out in your editorial, ``killed more people . . . in the last year than in the 18-month intifada in Israel.'' JUTTA MEIER-WIEDENBACH Colombia Program Coordinator Fellowship of Reconciliation Task Force on Latin America and the Caribbean San Francisco, Calif. - --- MAP posted-by: Josh