DATE=8/29/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=CLINTON-COLOMBIA (L)
NUMBER=2-265954
BYLINE=DAVID GOLLUST
DATELINE=WHITE HOUSE
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: President Clinton flies Wednesday to the
Colombian port city of Cartagena for a brief visit
designed to show support for the elected government of
President Andres Pastrana, which is under siege by
drug traffickers and left-wing rebels. The
administration is speeding delivery to Colombia of
more than a billion dollars in anti-drug aid. V-O-A's
David Gollust reports from the White House.
TEXT: Much of the U-S aid package would go to provide
training and equipment - including helicopters - to
special anti-drug units of the Colombian army and
national police.
There is concern among some members of Congress and
human-rights activists that the United States might be
drawn into a Vietnam-style involvement in the long-
running war between the Colombian government and left-
wing insurgents.
But in a broadcast message to the people of Colombia
on the eve of his visit, Mr. Clinton said the aid is
intended only to bolster the two governments' common
fight against drug traffickers. He said United States
wants to see a negotiated peace between the government
and rebels in the insurgency:
/// CLINTON ACT ///
Please do not misunderstand our purpose. We
have no military objective. We do not believe
your conflict has a military solution. We
support the peace process. Our approach is both
pro- peace and anti-drug.
/// END ACT ///
Mr. Clinton said the one-point-three-billion dollar U-
S aid package has a heavy human-rights component, and
that American aid would be denied to Colombian units
involved in human-rights abuses or linked to abuses by
paramilitary forces.
He also stressed that it is designed as the U-S
contribution to the broader "Plan Colombia"
reconstruction program of President Pastrana and that
his government - not Washington -- is running the
process:
/// CLINTON ACT TWO ///
Let me be clear about the role of the United
States. First, it is not for us to propose a
plan. Second, this is a plan about making life
better for people. We are supporting the
Colombian plan. You are leading. We are
providing assistance as a friend and a neighbor.
/// END ACT ///
The President will spend about eight-hours in
Cartagena in a series of events stressing the
government's efforts to restore the rule of law in a
country where civil warfare and drug violence have
killed 35-thousand people and left a half-million
homeless over the last decade.
He will meet widows of police killed in the line of
duty, and visit a U-S funded judicial center where
low-income people can get access to legal services.
Mr. Clinton, who will be accompanied by a bipartisan
Congressional delegation including House Speaker
Dennis Hastert, will not visit the capital, Bogota,
for security reasons.
It will the first visit to Colombia by a U-S president
since George Bush made a brief stop in 1990.
(SIGNED)
NEB/DAG/TVM/RAE
29-Aug-2000 15:07 PM EDT (29-Aug-2000 1907 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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