Source: Associated Press Pubdate: Tue, 28 Apr 1998 Author: Julie Watson, The Associated Press U.S. VETS LEVEL CHARGES AT MEXICO MEXICO CITY (AP) - The Mexican army is using U.S. military equipment intended to stop drug-smuggling to intimidate Indians in southern Mexico, a group of U.S. veterans charged Friday. ``Our government is supplying arms, equipment and training to the army of Mexico ... that are being used against the poor people of Mexico,'' said Wilson Powell, a Korean war veteran and a member of the Veterans for Peace delegation. The four-member delegation spent 10 days monitoring military activities in the southern Mexican states of Oaxaca and Chiapas, where leftist guerrilla groups have risen up in recent years. They also visited the Chiapas hamlet of Acteal, where 45 peasants were gunned down by a pro-government paramilitary group in December. Veterans for Peace, based in Washington, D.C., plans to present its findings to church groups and schools in the United States in hopes of pressuring U.S. officials to monitor the use of its military equipment and training in Mexico. The group says its purpose is to increase public awareness of U.S. military involvement in other nations and end the arms race. Last year, the State Department pledged $6 million to train narcotics officers hired after Mexico purged its anti-narcotics program to fight corruption. The veterans charge that a lack of monitoring allows the Mexican government to use such training, as well as military equipment, for purposes beyond the drug war. Mexico's government dispatched thousands of troops to the highland region following a short-lived 1994 rebellion by leftist Zapatista rebels seeking greater autonomy for Mexico's Indians. The lack of a permanent peace accord has polarized the zone with some Indian communities siding with the rebels. Mexico says its maintains troops there to pacify the area and quell sporadic violence. During their stay, the veterans saw U.S.-made Huey helicopters flying over small villages. They heard accusations that the helicopter pilots intimidated some communities with by flying low over their homes, sometimes daily. In recent years, the United States has donated dozens of military planes and helicopters, including UH-1H Huey choppers, to Mexico to transport troops assigned to intercept drug shipments. Mexican soldiers and immigration officials kept a close watch on the group and repeatedly demanded to see their papers, the veterans said. ``We felt some of the same intimidation the indigenous people who live there feel,'' Powell said. Copyright 1998 The Associated Press.