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The war upon Drugs Burma Out! Who
Subject: The war upon Drugs Burma Out! Who do we trust?
Financial Times - October 26 1999
COLOMBIA: Shades of Vietnam
By Adam Thomson in Bogota
Chewing gum and wearing wrap-around mirrored sunglasses, the
sunburnt US army officer looks distinctly out of place against the ochre
soil, mango trees and lush mountains of Tolemaida, Colombia's largest
military base.
Hands on hips, and sporting the badges of the airborne division, he
parades through the seething heat along a line of young Colombian
soldiers who pepper a row of distant targets with their automatic
rifles.
On the other side of the base, in the shade of a small tree, one of
the officer's colleagues is instructing a group of Colombians in the
art of explosives and personal satellite guidance systems. Another
conducts a simulation of a mortar attack.
All three are part of a 47-man team of US army officers whose task
during the coming months is to train a new anti-narcotics battalion
of the Colombian army, about 60 per cent of which is funded by US
taxpayers' contributions. The training and funding of the battalion
is the latest offensive in the war against drugs in Colombia, the
world's largest producer of cocaine and an important producer of
heroine.
It is also a clear sign of the US's increasing involvement in the
country's 35-year armed conflict with insurgent groups: when it
begins operations in December, the battalion's first mission will be
to enter the southern jungle province of Putumayo and destroy a
plethora of cocaine-producing laboratories, virtually guaranteeing
open combat with the heavily armed leftwing guerrillas who protect
them.
Guerrillas - particularly the largest group, Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia (Farc) - as well as rightwing paramilitary units
are deeply involved in the thriving drugs industry. They tax growers
and intermediaries, and they guard laboratories for money or a cut of
production.
> Aware of the symbiotic relationship between rebels and ugs, the US
government has traditionally been cautious to ensure its> anti-narcotics
aid does not end up funding counter insurgency
operations. As a result, most has gone to the National Poli, who
carry out eradication programmes in many of the country's> drug-producing
areas, but do not openly engage rebel groups in mbat.
Now, though, analysts say this caution is beginning to wane. Since
March, for example, US authorities have been providing Colombia's
armed forces with military intelligence about the movement of rebel
troops in drug-producing areas. And a growing proportion of the $300m
budget this year is being spent on the army rather than on the police.
"We have switched from 90 per cent police aid to a real commitment
with the Colombian military, and the rules of engagement [with the
guerrillas] are clearly changing," said Adam Isacson of the Centre
for International Policy, a Washington-based non-governmental
organisation.
Indeed, speaking before a September 21 Senate caucus on international
narcotics control, Randy Beers, the US assistant secretary for
international narcotics and law enforcement affairs, openly
recognised the need to work more closely with the Colombian army in
areas such as Putumayo in order to counter the heavy Farc presence
there.
"We do recognise that, given the extensive links between Colombia's
guerrilla groups and the narcotics trade, counter-narcotics forces
will come into contact with the guerrillas, and must be provided with
the means to defend themselves and carry out their mission."
The answer has been to back the new anti-narcotics battalion, the
first of three which will all be fully operational by 2001. Once they
are deployed, however, the fear is that the battalion's role will not
just be purely defensive. According to the Colombian army, the US
funding only covers non-lethal aid. Yet about $50m of the 1999 $58m
presidential drawdown - an additional source of aid in the form of
military hardware from the US arsenal - is set to equip the battalion
with 18 UH1N armed helicopters, some ammunition and weapons.
Increasing funding to the army not only raises questions about it
becoming inexorably caught up in Colombia's armed conflict, but also
siphons money to an organisation which, like its guerrilla
adversaries, has been widely associated with human rights abuses.
Despite the concern, US anti-narcotics aid to the army in the future
seems almost inevitable. Republican Senators Paul Coverdell and
Michael DeWine recently introduced legislation in Congress which
plans to raise US aid to Colombia to about $1.6bn over the next three
years. Of that, approximately 90 per cent would be police and
military aid.
"What is worrying is that, as we are stepping up our involvement in
Colombia, there is no benchmark for when we feel the goal has been
reached and we can go home," said Mr Isacson. "Drawing a parallel to
Vietnam in 1963 is very tempting."
Barry McCaffrey, the US drug tsar, told the FT in London that the US
faced a problem in "separating the drugs money from the peace
process", in other words in ensuring that anti-narcotics aid was not
simply being used to fight guerrillas.
But he insisted that there was a "zero possibility" of the US
military being dragged into directly intervening in the area.
However, he confirmed that current policy involved providing the
Colombian armed forces with "training, intelligence, equipment, and
advisers when it is appropriate."
"Colombia has a huge problem as the dominant producing nation. .. the
government there has lost control of half the country. .. vital US
interests are at stake in the region," he said.
Mr McCaffrey, a retired general who directs the US Office of National
Drug Control Policy, is hoping that the European Union will boost its
crop replacement aid to Colombia alongside intelligence and law
enforcement co-operation.
Additional reporting by Jimmy Burns in London
------------------------------
Follow the plea by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, and the appreciations
of HH the Dalai Lama, the Shan Democratic Union, film maker John
Pilger, the Free Burma Coalition, author Alan Clements, Dennis
Skinner MP, Tony Benn MP, Ann Clwyd MP, Congress-woman
Maxine Waters, Socialist Workers' Party, Dr and Welsh rugby
star JPR Williams, Hendrix bassist Noel Redding, S African jazz
pianist Abdullah Ibrahim, All Burma Students Democratic
Organisation, All Burma Students Democratic Front, Tasmanian
Trades & Labour Council, Tim Gopsill, editor.
The.Journalist@xxxxxxxxxx, and numerous others.
Supporting a Genuine war upon drugs and human rights abuse.
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