DATE=8/30/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=CLINTON-COLOMBIA (L)
NUMBER=2-265990
BYLINE=DAVID GOLLUST
DATELINE=CARTAGENA, COLOMBIA
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: President Clinton is in Colombia for a one-day
visit to stress U-S support for the government of
Colombian President Andres Pastrana and its struggle
against drug traffickers. There is extraordinary
security in place for the visit, the first by a U-S
President to Colombia in a decade. Correspondent
David Gollust reports from the Caribbean port city of
Cartagena.
TEXT: The Clinton visit is brief, but crowded with
events underscoring the U-S commitment to the Pastrana
government and its efforts to restore the rule of law
in a country torn by drug violence and a chronic
leftwing insurgency.
After an airport welcome from the Colombian President,
the two leaders - both in shirtsleeves -- left by
motorcade for a briefing on drug-interdiction efforts
at the Cartagena port complex. They also toured a U-S
funded center where legal services are being extended
to the city's poor.
With Republican Party support, Mr. Clinton last month
pushed through Congress a one-point-three billion
dollar Colombia aid package that includes training and
helicopters for anti-drug units of the Colombian
security forces.
The plan has been criticized as intervention that
could inflame Colombia's three-decade civil conflict.
But Mr. Clinton said Tuesday in a broadcast message to
Colombians the United States supports peace efforts by
Mr. Pastrana and does not believe the insurgency can
be resolved by force of arms:
/// 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 ///
Last week, Mr. Clinton waived human-rights conditions
attached to the aid package to speed its delivery to
Colombia - prompting complaints from human-rights
groups and some members of Congress.
But administration officials insist Mr. Pastrana is
committed to dealing with human-rights violations by
Colombian security forces and paramilitary groups
allied with them.
The choice of Cartagena for the Clinton visit was
driven by security concerns. It is more than 600-
kilometers from the capital, Bogota, which is plagued
by criminal violence, and is even farther from the
southern part of the country where drug gangs and
rebels have a nearly free reign.
None-the-less thousands of Colombian police and
soldiers - and hundreds of U-S security agents - have
been deployed here for the President's visit. It is
the first visit by a U-S President since George Bush
visited the scenic port in 1990.
In a show of bipartisan solidarity, Mr. Clinton was
accompanied here by a big congressional delegation led
by the Republican Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert.
(SIGNED)
NEB/DAG/RAE
30-Aug-2000 12:49 PM EDT (30-Aug-2000 1649 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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