DATE=4/28/2000
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=COLOMBIA / PEACE / U-S
NUMBER=5-46224
BYLINE=BILL RODGERS
DATELINE=RIO DE JANEIRO
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: As the U-S Senate considers emergency aid for Colombia,
leftist rebels in that nation continue to denounce the military
aspects of the assistance package and warn of further bloodshed
if they are approved. V-O-A's Bill Rodgers, who was in
Colombia recently, reports the impending assistance from the
United States may also be intended as a form of pressure to
persuade the rebels to reach a peace agreement with the
government.
TEXT: The situation in Colombia - where armed insurgencies of
the right and left are growing stronger - appears to have
reached a critical point. Leftist rebel attacks against the
Colombian army and police are on the rise, while rightwing
paramilitary groups terrorize civilians suspected of supporting
the guerrillas.
Fueling the violence is the drug trade - a multi-billion dollar
business in trafficking cocaine and heroin, mainly to the
United States. Both the leftist rebels and the rightist
paramilitaries are involved, either directly or indirectly,
with drugs. In exchange for money, these armed groups protect
either the smuggling activities or the peasant farmers who grow
the coca and opium poppy from which cocaine and heroin are
derived.
Colombia has asked the United States for emergency aid to
combat drug trafficking, and the U-S Senate is considering a
one-point-six-billion-dollar package for the South American
nation. The money would be used to strengthen anti-drug
training for the Colombian police and military and provide them
with better equipment, including 63 helicopters. About half of
these aircraft would be Blackhawk helicopters, equipped with
night vision capabilities and special armor.
But the proposed U-S aid, which is part of a multi-faceted
Colombian anti-drug strategy called "Plan Colombia," also is
designed to help farmers move away from growing illicit crops.
U-S ambassador to Colombia, Curtis Kamman, describes this
aspect of the proposed aid as the "carrot" of the plan.
/// 1st KAMMAN ACT ///
Alternative development, giving real options to the
people that grow the coca leaf or the opium poppy, giving
them real ways to support their families without
producing illegal products. So there is both a carrot
and a stick in the overall plan--and I think that
although the guerrillas have criticized the stick part of
the plan, they have said they could see some positive
elements in the carrot part. Well, I don't think the
plan will work if it doesn't have both parts.
/// END ACT ///
Colombia's largest leftist rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia, FARC, strongly denounces the proposed U-S
military aid and the military component of the Plan Colombia.
FARC spokesman Raul Reyes tells VOA the main victims of this
kind of military strategy will be Colombia's peasant farmers.
/// 1st REYES SPANISH ACT WITH ENGLISH VOICEOVERS ///
We are not opposed to the social programs that are part
of the plan; we would never be against that. What we
want is the development of the country. We also are not
against the fight against drug trafficking. We know drug
trafficking is a cancer and has to be combated by all.
But the thing is that the drug traffickers don't have
armies, they are not the ones growing coca. The ones who
are growing coca are the peasant farmers, so why do you
need heavily armed helicopters to fight against these
farmers? Why do you need planes with advanced bombing
capabilities to destroy coca plantations?
/// END ACT ///
/// OPT /// The Colombian and U-S governments argue it is the
FARC that is acting as the surrogate army for the drug
traffickers. They say drug trafficking is such a problem in
Colombia because the FARC and another leftist insurgency, the
E-L-N, and the rightist paramilitaries all protect the drug
trade. /// END OPT ///
Yet the prospect of massive U-S aid also may be acting as a
form of pressure on the FARC and the other armed groups to
negotiate a peace agreement with the government. The FARC,
which occupies a huge demilitarized zone in the southern part
of the country, has opened peace talks with the government of
President Andres Pastrana. But the negotiations are
progressing slowly.
U-S Ambassador Kamman tells V-O-A the U-S emergency aid may
help speed up the process.
/// 2nd KAMMAN ACT ///
The FARC has spoken out against the aid package or at
least the military components of it, and so perhaps
that's the best evidence that it gives them an incentive
to move more seriously towards a peace agreement.
/// END ACT ///
But FARC spokesman Raul Reyes warns if this is the intention,
it will backfire.
/// 2nd REYES SPANISH ACT WITH ENGLISH VOICEOVER ///
I don't know if they're thinking that way but if they are
it would be terrible mistake, because the FARC does not
respond to pressure. If they are considering this they
are very badly advised because what would happen in the
future would be all-out war, involving all Colombians
against the invaders. This would be terrible because it
would be repeating experiences of the past, which have
left a history of bloodshed, deaths, and disappearances
and created irreconcilable differences between peoples
who do not even know why they are fighting each other.
/// END ACT ///
Both U-S and Colombian officials reject this view, insisting
the U-S aid will not lead to U-S military involvement in
Colombia. They say if the rebels do not get in the way of
anti-drug operations, they have nothing to fear.
Meantime, President Pastrana has announced plans to create a
second demilitarized zone in the country to provide a safe
haven for the other leftist insurgency, the National Liberation
Army, E-L-N, to start peace negotiations. Talks between the
Pastrana government and the E-L-N to create conditions for
holding negotiations have been going on for months. But,
coincidentally or not, the breakthrough announced by President
Pastrana this week came as the U-S Senate moves closer to
approving the aid package for Colombia. (Signed)
NEB/WFR/KL
28-Apr-2000 17:51 PM EDT (28-Apr-2000 2151 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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