Britain backs Colombian president's drug eradication plan

April 13, 2000
Web posted at: 9:49 p.m. EDT (0149 GMT)

In this story: U.S. Senate resists Pastrana's appeals $7.5 billion sought for 'Plan Colombia' RELATED STORIES, SITES

From staff and wire reports

LONDON -- Colombian President Andres Pastrana has won support from Britain for his efforts to stem his country's rampant drug trade.

"We want to ensure there is an end to drug trafficking and an end to the violence," British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook told reporters after meeting Pastrana on Thursday. "Britain is keen to support Colombia."

After what Cook called a "friendly lunch" with Pastrana, Britain announced it would host a meeting this summer to help raise support for Colombia within the European Union.

That meeting will be held a week before a conference of donors in Madrid in July. Pastrana hopes to raise $3.5 billion at the conference for his plan to fight narcotics production and trafficking in Colombia, the world's largest producer of cocaine and the fourth-largest heroin producer.

But Britain's support came with the qualification that Pastrana's army should do more to support human rights.

"I have welcomed the steps taken under President Pastrana's government to make sure the police and the army are there to uphold human rights, not to break human rights," Cook said.

International human rights organizations and the U.S. State Department have accused Colombian government forces of continuing to support right-wing paramilitary death squads.

The backing that Pastrana received in London contrasted with his reception in Washington, where he stopped Wednesday before going to London.

Despite the support of the Clinton administration, Pastrana saw a Senate vote on a $1.6 billion emergency aid package delayed until May or June. The U.S. aid package aims to combat the drug trade by supplying military assistance and hardware.

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Mississippi, blocked the measure after lawmakers added unrelated spending items for defense, highways and other items to the bill.

On Thursday, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, attacked the administration's handling of the issue in a Senate appropriations subcommittee hearing with Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

Leahy said that, despite his support for international aid programs in the past, he had not been able to get answers from the administration about how the money in the Colombia aid package would be spent.

$7.5 billion sought for 'Plan Colombia'

Pastrana is hoping to raise $7.5 billion from donor nations for a three-year plan dubbed Plan Colombia. He has said that Colombia could halve its drug production within five years. But Pastrana's plan calls for thousands of more troops, a move that has alarmed human rights activists.

In London, Pastrana said only a quarter of the money would go to the military, with the rest being directed toward strengthening the country's institutions and stimulating the economy.

"We need military assistance for interdiction," Pastrana said. "For the first time in our country, the armed forces, the police, the navy are really involved in fighting narcotics.

"But at the same time, we need money to invest in social development, alternative development so we can get rid of these illicit crops."

Pastrana said his talks in London had focused on the war on drugs and his peace talks with left-wing guerrillas.

Since his election in 1998, Pastrana has conducted intermittent negotiations with Marxist rebels in a bid to end a three-decade guerrilla war that has claimed 35,000 lives in the last 10 years.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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Presidencia de la Republica (in Spanish)
CIA World Factbook: Colombia
Colombia-Ministry of Foreign Relations Affairs
Colombian National Police (in Spanish)

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