http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/news/pages/sti/2000/08/27/stifgname02001.html August 27 2000 CENTRAL/SOUTH AMERICA © Killing fields: Clinton is backing an intensified campaign against Colombian cocaine growers and dealers, with helicopter gunships raining defoliants on coca plants Agent Green casts shades of Vietnam over Colombia Tom Rhodes, Washington IN PUERTO ASIS, in the remote, coca-rich hinterland of Colombia, Father Luis Alfonso Gomez is preparing for war. As President Bill Clinton arrives this week to promote efforts to fight the drug trade and end the 30-year civil war on which it has thrived, the priest fears his country may drag the superpower into a new Vietnam. The parallels are all too apparent: not only is the local terrain as forbidding as the forests of southeast Asia, but America is even developing a toxic herbicide known by its Colombian opponents as Agent Green - a thinly veiled allusion to Agent Orange, the toxin that killed and maimed Vietcong and American soldiers during the Vietnam war. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc), the country's most powerful guerrilla group, meanwhile, is rallying supporters to fight any attempt to clamp down on a business from which it is believed to make $500m (£330m) a year. Paul Reyes, the group's chief negotiator, warned Washington it risked being dragged into a long and nightmarish conflict. In towns such as Puerto Asis, many already appear to be heeding Farc's call. "We arrive at a village to give mass and find just women and children in church," Gomez said. "The men are all being trained by the guerrillas, who tell them that the gringos [Americans] are going to invade." Clinton will spend just eight hours in Colombia during his visit on Wednesday to Cartagena, a coastal colonial resort hundreds of miles from the cocaine-producing regions. His visit is intended to endorse Plan Colombia, a $1.3 billion aid package devised by President Andres Pastrana and approved by America last week, that aims to bring peace largely by trying to eradicate narcotics and the country's drug barons. Despite efforts to promote a $240m share going to judicial reform, human rights education and the restoration of democracy, the bulk of the money will go on military aid - prompting fears it will tempt the government to step up counter-insurgency measures rather than seek a peaceful solution to violence dating back 36 years. America is providing 60 Black Hawk helicopters and Huey-2 gunships - earlier versions of which flew above the jungles of Vietnam - as well as 200 special forces to train two Colombian battalions to secure drug fields and allow the country's police force to destroy crops and laboratories. Plan Colombia appears to call for more than just the eradication of crops, however. It also seeks to eliminate the guerrilla and paramilitary groups that guard the fields so that aircraft can safely spray crop-decimating fungus over the plantations. While initial flights will use a fungus similar to weedkiller, America has asked the United Nations to oversee tests for a new defoliant, Fusarium oxysporum, that officials in Washington describe as a potential "silver bullet" for killing coca plants. Local environmentalists and scientists have warned that this Agent Green could cause mutations among humans and plants in the delicate Amazon basin.Human rights groups have also criticised Clinton for his decision last week to waive a list of conditions set by the US Congress that linked the aid package to improvements in human rights - in particular, the efforts to block human-rights violations by the Colombian army and its right-wing paramilitary allies, who are as dependent on money from the drugs trade as Farc. Pastrana so far has met only one of the conditions by handing over jurisdiction for the trial of military officers charged with such violations. Although he has fired four generals and suspended 30 other military officers, the action has done little to quell the fears of many Colombians that American money could led to more massacres and atrocities of the sort that have already seen more than 35,000 people killed in the past 10 years. Earlier this month, four boys and two girls aged six to 11 were killed and five wounded when a school party was ambushed by an army patrol in Antioquia province. Witnesses claimed that troops armed with assault rifles and grenades fired on the children for 45 minutes. The Colombian army insisted the youngsters were trapped in the crossfire in a clash with Marxist rebels. Colombia's neighbours have also expressed alarm about the effects of American involvement: Brazil warned last week it would take no part in any international action in Colombia; Venezuela has refused to let American planes fly over its territory to track the movement of Colombian drugs. Clinton will not see first hand the crucial role the drug plays in providing a livelihood for local peasants such as Lehia Roja, a mother of nine who tills two hectares of coca near Puerto Asis. If aerial spraying begins, she fears she will lose her single form of income and become one of an estimated 30,000 "cocaine refugees" forced to leave their homes. "With coca I can raise my children and pay for their school fees," Roja said last week. "It is simple: there is no other commerce here." Additional reporting: Ruth Morris, Puerto Asis -- ----------------------- NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ----------------------- ________________________________________________________ 1stUp.com - Free the Web Get your free Internet access at http://www.1stUp.com <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. 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