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Just say NO to Colombia military aid

Congress and the White House are on the brink of deciding to send
a big package of military aid to Colombia's army. For human rights
reasons, this is the wrong choice. Urge your members of Congress
and the White House instead to support peace, human rights and crop
substitution programs in Colombia and drug treatment and prevention
programs at home. The decisions could be made any time from now
until the end of the congressional session in November. Make your voice heard now.

US Colombia Policy: On the Brink of Bad Choices

On September 22, Colombian President Andres Pastrana visited Washington
to ask for a comprehensive package of assistance for Colombia.
He asked the US government for military aid, economic assistance
and money for crop substitution programs ("alternative development")
to help peasant farmers switch from coca and poppy production to legal crops.

Pastrana met in Washington a complicated, varied response from US
policymakers who are united about the need to assist the Colombian
government but very divided as to how to respond. However, there
is increased support for a military solution to the Colombian crisis–and that is the wrong choice.

The Clinton Administration appears to already have made the wrong
policy decision in Colombia by backing Colombia's abusive army.
Already, the United States is training and funding a 950-troop
"counternarcotics" battalion that just began operating in the Putumayo,
a territory under dispute between Colombia's leftwing guerrillas
and rightwing paramilitaries. Under discussion is training and
aid for two to three more such battalions, as well as intelligence
support and a variety of other aid, training, and equipment for
the Colombian army and airforce.. While officially the Clinton
Administration still calls this counternarcotics, not counter-insurgency
aid, this distinction will be increasingly difficult to maintain.
Although the administration talks
about an "integrated" approach toward Colombia that includes support
for peace and human rights as well as military assistance, military
aid is likely to receive the balance of US funding and attention.

Congress is not of one mind on this issue. Some congressional
Republicans like Rep. Ben Gilman (R-NY) are still reluctant to agree
to support the army. In the past, they have been strong supporters
of the Colombian National Police, whose antinarcotics unit has a
much cleaner human rights record than the army. However, Rep. Gilman
has linked aid to the army to a condition that will only harm the
nascent peace process, by asking the Colombian government to end
the demobilized zone that it had agreed to with the FARC guerrilla
forces. Senators DeWine and Coverdell have announced they would
support a $1.5 billion package over three years that is primarily military and police aid.

Some members of Congress on both sides of the aisle are concerned
about the army's human rights record and its link to the brutal
paramilitary forces. They are urging that more of the Clinton Administration's
package to Colombia include support for human rights programs, aid
to the internally displaced, and alternative development.

Given the lack of progress in peace talks in Colombia, it will be
difficult to persuade a significant number of members of Congress
to oppose military aid outright. Nonetheless, it is crucial for
members of Congress to begin to hear this message.

While both administration and congressional officials have talked about
Colombia aid in the billions of dollars, the reality is likely to be
smaller this year due to budget constraints. The way it will probably
take place is that Congress will put all the unfinished appropriations
bills together in one "omnibus spending bill" in October or November,
and some aid for Colombia will be stuck in this package. While the
amounts may not be huge, our concern is that significant aid to the
Colombian military will lock this policy into place.

Background: Colombia is enduring the worst human right crisis in the
hemisphere today. Some 3000 civilians die of political violence every
year; 1.5 million people have been displaced since 1985, with more than
300,000 last year alone, in a refugee/internal displacement crisis far
greater than Kosovo's. Human rights activists, religious leaders,
university leaders and aid workers for the displaced are among the many
people living under death threats, with increasing numbers forced into
exile. Three guerrilla groups (FARC, ELN, EPL) and rightwing
paramilitaries both target primarily civilians seen as supporters of the
other side, with guerrilla groups guilty of most kidnappings for profit
and the paramilitaries responsible for most extrajudicial killings and
causing most of the massive displacement. The army, while responsible
directly for fewer human rights violations, has extensive links with
paramilitary forces at a local and regional level; some army officers
either directly facilitate the work of paramilitaries or look the other
way as violence occurs. Talks between the Colombian government with the
FARC guerrillas have begun but have repeatedly been stalled. Colombian
President Andres Pastrana has made good-faith efforts for peace but his
human rights policy has been ineffective.

Some US policymakers make a simple equation of guerrillas being linked
with drug traffickers as the source of the problem, and aiding the army
as the simple solution. The reality is more complex. While guerrillas
profit by taxing the drug trade in areas they control, paramilitaries
are directly tied to drug traffickers. Aiding the army risks aiding
the paramilitaries. There are no easy answers here, but in the long
term, only support for a peace process, attention to human rights,
alternative development programs and programs to lower demand for drugs
in developed nations offer some hope.

Action: Write to your senators and representative and ask them to
assist Colombia, but with a policy based on support for a peace process
and respect for human rights. Urge them:

To oppose: aid to the Colombian army. The Colombian army, due to its
still extensive links at a local and regional level for abusive
paramilitary forces, is not an appropriate partner for the United
States.

To support: diplomatic and financial support for a peace process and for
civil society efforts for peace; human rights programs; humanitarian aid
for Colombia's displaced; crop substitution programs; and more support
for domestic drug treatment and prevention programs in the United
States.

Also send a similar letter to: Secretary of State Madeleine Albright,
the State Department, 2201 C Street NW, Washington DC 20520 or call the
White House comment line at: (202) 456-1111.

Resources: To get up to speed about the complex conflict in Colombia,
check the Colombia alert (under "Urgent Actions" and Drug Policy
Citizen's Guide (under "Publications") on the Washington Office on Latin
America's webpage, www.wola.org. A chronology of Colombian history is
available on the Colombia Human Rights Network's webpage,
www.igc.org/colhrnet