DATE=7/7/2000
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=COLOMBIA SUPPORT
NUMBER=5-46624
BYLINE=RHODA METCALFE
DATELINE=BOGOTA
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: In Madrid Friday, representatives from more
than a dozen European and North
American governments will gather to discuss how much
support they're willing to give the South American
country of Colombia to disentangle itself from more
than 30 years of guerrilla war and illicit drug
trafficking. The United States decided last week to
funnel a billion dollars into helicopters and military
equipment to destroy Colombia's drug crops, which are
a key source of financing to left-wing rebels.
Now the Colombian government is hoping to get another
billion dollars from European countries to take the
sting out of the military aid with social and human
rights programs. But as Rhoda Metcalfe reports, going
into the meeting, European governments appear
reluctant to buy into Plan Colombia.
TEXT: For the past six months, the Colombian
government has been trying to sell
its new strategy to the world -- its so-called Plan
Colombia.
The plan is supposed to tackle both the country's need
for war and for peace. From the United States, the
Colombian government asked for support on the war
side. A billion dollar military package that includes
60 helicopters to be used in a mass aerial
fumigation program to destroy Colombia's coca crops --
the base for cocaine. The helicopters,
which include 18 battle-ready Black Hawks, will also
be used to fight any left-wing rebels who try to
protect the crops.
From Europe, the Colombian government is hoping to
extract another billion dollars for
peace building -- to help war victims, to improve the
justice system and human rights protections. And to
find new legal crops for Colombian farmers.
At a meeting last week, in a guerrilla-held zone of
Colombia, European diplomats heard first-hand the
anger of some of Colombia's coca farmers. If the US-
supported fumigation program succeeds, some 35-
thousand of these farmers will lose their livelihood
based on the coca crops and will have to grow
something else.
//Begin act. of farmer speaking Spanish, fade down//
We are willing to stop cultivating these drug crops,
community leader Guillermo Penya told the European
diplomats. But only if the government sits down with
us to negotiate some alternative options. Not with
helicopters and fumigation hanging over our heads, he
said.
This is clearly one of Plan Colombia's greatest
potential problems. Critics charge the plan was
developed without consulting the Colombian people or
even civilian organizations -- like church or human
rights groups. And this worries European governments.
Dutch Ambassador to Colombia Gysbert Bos says past
attempts to develop peace strategies in Colombia have
failed because they've always been drawn up behind the
people's backs.
//Begin act. of Bos in English//
So there was never a culture of participation, of
support to whatever was decided upon or what was
planned. I do hope that this important initiative by
President Pastrana will not die the same death. We
hope that the process will succeed. But it should not
be a dark room, billiard room business, closed to
everybody.
//End act. of Bos//
Many European governments say they want to support
programs like crop substitution to help Colombian
farmers break away from drug production.
But they're in a difficult situation. How to support
peace programs without appearing to be
supporting the whole plan, including the military
component?
Virtually the entire community of Colombian non-
government organizations -- or NGOs --
from churches to human right groups to university
agencies are adamantly opposed to Plan
Colombia. And they've teamed up with European NGOs to
fight the plan.
Jorge Rojas runs CODHES, a Colombian non-government
agency that helps people displaced by the war. He says
financing for social programs is desperately
needed. But he stresses that money won't erase the
damage the military aid is likely to produce.
//Begin act. of man speaking in Spanish, fade down //
The military aid is going to make the war grow and
become more violent, Mr. Rojas says. And
the illegal drug production will just move deeper into
the forest and spread over the borders
into neighboring countries, like Ecuador and Peru.
European governments are not expected to reject Plan
Colombia outright, but they're unlikely to offer up
the billion dollars the Colombian government had hoped
for.
//Begin Opt.//
As Dutch ambassador Gysbert Bos pointed out, many
European governments -- even if they agree with the
logic behind Plan Colombia, are more concerned about
countries in Africa and Asia
//Begin Opt. act. of Bos (in English) //
And I think, I'm very much afraid that the
international community will be very hesitant, with
its own priorities to stake out one-billion dollars,
for Colombia's sake when so many other countries have
the same problems, that will not receive
that kind of help. But there I'm getting very cynical.
//End Opt. Bos act.//
//End Opt.//
European and Colombian non-government organizations
have spokespeople at the Madrid meeting, and they're
hoping to convince all the governments there,
including the United States, to back away from the
military approach. They want that money put instead
into social programming that could help solve the
underlying poverty which they believe is really at
the heart of Colombia's drug and guerrilla
war.(Signed)
NEB/RM/PLM
07-Jul-2000 01:12 AM EDT (07-Jul-2000 0512 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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