Pubdate: Wed, 15 September 1999 Source: Guardian, The (UK) Copyright: Guardian Media Group 1999 Contact: http://www.guardian.co.uk/ Author: Martin Hodgson in Bogota COLOMBIAN DRUGS FORCE RAISES FEAR OF US ROLE Flanked by top military commanders, President Andres Pastrana yesterday unveiled Colombia's latest weapon in the war on drugs: a specialised army battalion designed to confront the traffickers in the vast narcotics plantations of the south. But observers warned that the US-trained and funded battalion marked a dangerous shift towards direct US involvement in Colombia's guerrilla war. US officials insist that military aid can be used only for anti-narcotics efforts. But with leftwing rebels increasingly implicated in drug production, the line between anti-narcotics and counter-insurgency operations has been blurred. The 1,000-strong battalion will start operations in December, concentrating on the remote southern states, a rebel stronghold where the dense Amazon jungle is patchworked with illegal drug plantations. "The theatre of operations is the southern part of the country - it's clearly focusing on direct combat with the rebels," said Winifred Tate, who monitors Colombia for the Washington Office on Latin America, a US think-tank. Yesterday's launch came during wave of political violence triggered by the foundering peace process, and many Colombians fear that Washington hawks are advocating a military solution to the country's 38-year civil conflict. "What the US is doing will end up fuelling the conflict, with tremendously destabilising consequences in Colombia and the whole region," Ms Tate said. Peace talks with the largest rebel group, the 15,000-strong Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc), began in January but were suspended indefinitely over disagreements on international participation in the negotiations. With the talks in deadlock, sporadic fighting continues throughout the country. US officials recently revealed that they now regularly share sensitive intelligence on rebel movements for use in counter-narcotics operations, but they admit that they have no system to ensure that the information is not used for counter-insurgency operations. When helicopter gunships killed scores of guerrillas retreating after a July offensive, many suspected US had helped to track the rebels. Colombia is already the third-largest recipient of US military aid, receiving about $300m (pounds 190m) for anti-narcotics operations. The support is focused on the Colombian police, in the form of training, ammunition and helicopters to protect crop-dusting planes which spray illegal crops with defoliant. At any time there are about 300 US military advisers in the country. But US officials fear that drug production could rise by a further 50% in the next two years, owing partly to the protection provided by the 20,000 leftwing guerrillas in the country. According to the Whitehouse anti-drugs chief, Barry McCaffrey, many units of the Farc and the smaller National Liberation Army (ELN) are directly involved in the drugs trade. General McCaffrey has already proposed an extra $600m for the Colombian war on drugs. In the past 10 years the rebels have tripled in number and filled their war chests by protecting drug processing plants and crops of coca, the raw material of cocaine. Although the dispirited and poorly equipped Colombian army has been hard pressed to confront the rebels, in some regions the guerrillas have been badly hit by rightwing paramilitary groups. Observers say that as the military's human rights record has improved, the paramilitaries have taken over the "dirty war". According to human rights groups, many local army commanders tolerate or even cooperate with the death squads, which regularly attack civilians whom they accuse of collaborating with the guerrillas. Direct US military aid to the army was suspended in the 80s in response to human rights abuses, and although President Pastrana has made efforts to clean up the military, a recent US government report said that only three of the six army brigades operating in the main drug trafficking areas had passed a human rights screening process making them eligible for aid. "Many commanders still think that the subject of human rights was invented to impede their operations," said Andres Davila, a military analyst. Last month two army officers were convicted of murdering a leftwing senator in 1994. They were given a public reprimand and remain on active service. - --- MAP posted-by: Don Beck