DATE=1/24/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=CLINTON- COLOMBIA (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-258381
BYLINE=DAVID GOLLUST
DATELINE=WHITE HOUSE
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
/// EDS: CLINTON-PASTRANA MEETING AT 2:30 PM EST ///
INTRO: Colombian President Andres Pastrana meets with
President Clinton at the White House Tuesday on a
Washington visit aimed at lining up support for a
massive increase in U-S aid to Colombia. The Clinton
Administration is asking Congress for one-point-six
billion dollars over two years to help the Bogota
government, which is besieged by drug traffickers and
leftwing insurgents. V-O-A's David Gollust reports
from the White House.
TEXT: The Colombian leader's schedule includes
meetings with House Speaker Dennis Hastert and other
top leaders of Congress of both parties. And
Administration officials say they hope the two-day
visit will help overcome opposition to the big
increase in aid to the Bogota government.
The aid package would include the provision of more
than 60 helicopters to help Colombian security forces
reassert control over the southern part of the country
where the production and trafficking of cocaine has
flourished under protection of leftwing insurgents.
Opponents of the Administration plan, including some
leading Congressional Democrats and human rights
advocates, say the aid package will draw the United
States farther into Colombia's civil war, in which
government forces and allied paramilitary groups are
accused of widespread rights violations.
But briefing reporters here, Clinton spokesman Joe
Lockhart insisted again the U-S aid is targeted only
against the drug traffickers and he expressed
confidence the Administration can get the aid moving
to Colombia within a few months:
/// LOCKHART ACTUALITY ///
We haven't done a vote count. But fighting
drugs and narcotics has enjoyed bipartisan
support in the past and we expect to get
bipartisan support on this plan early this year
when Congress takes it up.
/// END ACT ///
The administration plan also includes funds to train
and equip special anti-drug units of the Colombian
security forces, to step up the eradication of drug
crops, and to strengthen the Colombian judiciary
system.
Officials here say that partly because of
increasingly-effective anti-drug efforts in
neighboring countries, Colombia has become the supply
source or transit point for 80-percent of the illicit
cocaine entering the United States.
The Administration aid package is to be the U-S
contribution to the more than seven-billion dollar
national recovery strategy - called "Plan Colombia" -
- outlined by President Pastrana at the U-N General
Assembly last September.
U-S aid to Colombia has risen sharply since Mr.
Pastrana took office in 1998 after the drug-tainted
administration of former President Ernesto Samper --
making Colombia third-largest American aid client
after Israel and Egypt. (Signed)
NEB/DAG/TVM/gm
24-Jan-2000 16:15 PM EDT (24-Jan-2000 2115 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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