Pubdate: Wed, 16 Jul 2003
Source: Associated Press (Wire)
Copyright: 2003 Associated Press
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/27

ECUADOR FOREIGN MIN CRITICIZES COLOMBIAN FUMIGATION

QUITO - Colombia's effort to eradicate drugs in the border area is
damaging Ecuadorean crops, rivers, soil and people's health, Foreign
Minister Nina Pacari said Wednesday.

"(Colombian) fumigation has caused serious damage," she said, adding
that Colombia has failed to respect a 2002 agreement that created a
six-mile buffer zone in the border area.

"The verbal agreement has not been fulfilled and we want to safeguard
legal crops for the development of the border zone in Ecuador," she
said.

The aerial spraying, carried out under the U.S.-backed Plan Colombia,
is aimed at eradicating plantations of coca, the raw material used to
make cocaine.

Colombian and U.S. officials have given repeated assurances that the
chemical used, a variant of the popular backyard fertilizer Roundup,
is ecologically harmless and safe to humans. They say the eradication
push only targets large-scale coca and opium plantations operated by
drug traffickers.

Ecuadoreans, however, say it harms people, animals, crops and
ecosystems.

Pacari said that Ecuador will seek a written agreement on the buffer
zone.

She also announced that technical commissions from both nations are
slated to meet July 28 to "seek a mutually beneficial solution."

In Colombia, meanwhile, in late June a court ordered the government to
suspend its U.S.-backed program to spray herbicides on drug crops
until more is known about the effects on human health and the
environment.

The government plans to appeal the ruling and has stated it will
continue the fumigation while the appeal is pending.
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MAP posted-by: Derek