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Burma Out! Working "with" Columbia



Subject: Burma Out! Working "with" Columbia :

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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,  SACP (South African Communist Party),
COSATU,  Tim Gopsill, editor.  The.Journalist@xxxxxxxxxx, and 
numerous others.   

Supporting a Genuine war upon drugs and human rights abuse.
Sydney 2000 : Burma Out! 
http://www.mihra.org/2k/burma.htm


U.S. Steps Up Drug War in Colombia
By Karl Penhaul 

CARLISLE, Pa. (Reuters) - The United States is due to begin training two
new Colombian army anti-drug battalions next spring in a move political
analysts said on Saturday could give Washington a more direct role in
the long-running war against drugs and Marxist rebels

-------------------

Roger,

I believe that they will FAIL to get the Colombian Drug war 
much bigger than it already is.

Three weeks ago, there was a nation-wide protest against the 
Drug War in Colombia- at least 5.2 million people marched 
nationwide in this country of 40 million. Police said two million 
protested in the capital.

the times, they are a'changin.....

==================================

Latin Leaders Call Drug War a Failure

This Wednesday (11/3), an open letter to the drug czars of the Western
Hemispheres was released, calling on policy makers to "admit that after two
decades the U.S. war on drugs -- both in Latin America and in the United
States -- is a failure." The letter, which was signed by former presidents
of Colombia, Costa Rica and Nicaragua, a former dean of the Harvard School
of Public Health and Harry Belafonte, among others, was presented at a well
attended press conference in Washington, DC this morning, aired on C-Span
and covered by the Associated Press as well as numerous Latin American
media.

The letter, and drug czars summit to which it was addressed, come at a time
when U.S. drug czar Barry McCaffrey is lobbying a hawkish Congress to pour
more billions of dollars in the Andean drug war quagmire, including major
new funding to the Colombian military, an institution which has been tied to
massacres and other human rights abuses and which is embroiled in a
protracted, unpopular civil war.

The press conference was organized by the Criminal Justice Policy
Foundation, with organizations including the Washington Office on Latin
America and Institute for Policy Studies.

Robert White, former ambassador to El Salvador and Paraguay and President of
the Center for International Policy, responded to drug czar McCaffrey and
Congress' casting of the Colombia issue in terms of "narcoguerrillas,"
saying, "The idea that you can target one group of people, in this case the
guerrillas, and say that they are responsible, is naive and self-serving."

Michael Gelacek, former vice-chairman of the United States Sentencing
Commission, offered words of caution for the drug policy officials gathered
in Washington: "If you say we're winning the war on drugs, you're doing
yourself and your citizens a tremendous disservice. We lost the war on drugs
a long time ago," adding, "You're going to have to deal with the
consequences of our policies, if you adopt them."

Rev. Bernard Keels, of the United Methodist Church in Baltimore, said, "The
crisis of drug abuse needs real material solutions in America's cities...
and a spiritual confrontation that does not attempt to blame others -- such
as peasants in South America -- for our failings as individuals and as a
society."

The final speakers may have been the most dramatic. Leonilda Vurita Vargas
and Margarita Terun Gonzales, representatives of the coca growers union in
the Chapare region of Bolivia, described the tragic consequences of drug war
militarization and eradication programs on their community. Since April,
said Vargas, 13 of them have been killed, including one small child who died
from inhaling gases. The forces that are supposed to only eradicate coca
have burned down 15 of their houses, as well as 8 hectares of pineapple, one
of the alternative crops to coca. Vargas explained that while Bolivian
officials come to the United States and claim to be making crop substitution
work, it hasn't worked because they have no markets for the alternative
crops.

Speaking at the drug czars summit, Pino Arlacchi, Director of the United
Nations Drug Control Program, predicted drug production in Latin America
will end in five years -- despite an increase Caribbean drug trafficking in
the Caribbean and an estimated 15% increase in cocaine production in
Colombia this year (see http://www.unfoundation.org/unwire/unwire.cfm#22).
Arlacchi's chosen them at last year's UN Drug Summit was similarly utopian:
"Drug Free in Ten -- We Can Do It!"

In related news, Human Rights Watch reported on Wednesday that two soldiers
whom government investigators say murdered a Colombian senator in 1994
remain on the army payroll, despite overwhelming evidence against them.

The text of the open letter follows:

A Message to the Hemisphere's Drug Policy Makers:
As you meet to develop a hemispheric drug strategy, it is time to admit that
after two decades the U.S. war on drugs -- both in Latin America and in the
United States -- is a failure. Despite a 17-fold increase in U.S. drug war
spending since 1980, record seizures, arrests, and incarcerations at home,
and destruction abroad of hundreds of drug labs and coca and poppy crops,
today in the U.S., illicit drugs are cheaper, more potent, and more easily
available than two decades ago.

Under the banner of fighting drugs, U.S. military aid to Colombia has
skyrocketed: today Colombia is by far the largest recipient of U.S. military
aid in the hemisphere -- and the third largest in the world after Israel and
Egypt. Yet, over the last decade, total drug production in Colombia has
risen 260 percent. The escalation of a militarized drug war in Colombia and
elsewhere in the Americas threatens regional stability, undermines efforts
towards demilitarization and democracy, and has put U.S. arms and money into
the hands of corrupt officials and military, police and intelligence units
involved in human rights abuses.

Before escalating the war on drugs even further, an honest evaluation of the
strategy is needed. Drug problems have not been solved because the approach
taken -- prohibition enforced by a militarized drug war -- is fundamentally
flawed:

U.S. drug policy disproportionately targets peasant farmers and fails to
address the poverty and inequality, widespread throughout the Americas,
which are at the root of drug cultivation.
The U.N. estimates that at least 75% of international drug shipments would
need to be intercepted to substantially reduce the profitability of drug
trafficking. Yet interdiction efforts intercept only 10-15% of the heroin
and 30% of the cocaine, according to the most optimistic estimates.
Continued demand in the U.S. ensures that even if drug cultivation,
processing and shipment are controlled in one area, they emerge in another.
U.S. prisons are overflowing with more than 400,000 drug offenders. The vast
majority of those behind bars are low level dealers; for example, only 5
percent of those jailed for crack are high level dealers.
Current drug strategy can never work given the magnitude of profits from
illicit drugs -- according to the U.S. government $57 billion annually in
the U.S. alone. According to the United Nations, drug trafficking is a $400
billion per year industry, equaling 8% of the world's trade.
Has the policy of doing more of the same produced a better result? Clearly
the answer is no.
The problem is not insufficient funds, firepower or prisons. Rather, a
totally new approach is needed. To be effective, U.S. drug control strategy
must shift from militarized eradication and interdiction in Latin America
and a law-enforcement dominated approach at home. As you meet to discuss the
future direction of drug control, we urge you to consider the following
points:

When it comes to reducing cocaine consumption, drug treatment is 7 times
more cost effective than domestic law enforcement, 10 times more effective
than interdiction and 23 times more effective than eradication, according to
a RAND Corporation study.
Expanding the U.S. drug war to other countries will merely further expand
the failure of drug control throughout the hemisphere while escalating
killings and environmental destruction.
Emphasis should be placed on public health, economic development, protecting
human rights and pragmatic approaches to reducing drug-related problems.
A long-term solution to the drug market needs to be developed by engaging in
a dialogue with the countries and non-governmental organizations in this
hemisphere that examines all options to the drug war.
Signed:
Antonio Aranibar, Former Foreign Minister of Bolivia
Oscar Arias, Former President of Costa Rica and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate
Harry Belafonte, Entertainer and Activist
Belisario Betancur, Former President of Colombia
Jorge Castaneda, Professor of Politics, New York University
Violeta Chamorro, Former President of Nicaragua
Adolfo Perez Esquivel, Argentine Nobel Peace Prize Laureate
Shirley Fingerhood, Former Justice of the New York State Supreme Court
James P. Gray, Judge of the Superior Court, Orange County, California
Dr. Howard Hiatt, Former Dean, Harvard School of Public Health
Cruz Reynoso, Former Justice of the California State Supreme Court
Mario Vargas Llosa, Peruvian writer and Politician
Robert E. White, President, Center for International Policy (former
Ambassador to El Salvador and Paraguay)