DATE=6/22/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=CLINTON-COLOMBIA (L)
NUMBER=2-263654
BYLINE=DAVID GOLLUST
DATELINE=WHITE HOUSE
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:


INTRO:  President Clinton is welcoming progress in the 
Senate on his Colombia aid package and pressing 
Congress to quickly finish work one the one-point-six-
billion dollar package aimed at helping the government 
of President Andres Pastrana deal with drug 
traffickers.  V-O-A's David Gollust reports from the 
White House.


TEXT:  The Senate, which had earlier resisted White 
House appeals to deal with aid to Colombia on an 
expedited basis, Wednesday approved most of the funds 
Mr. Clinton had proposed.

But the Senate version and its numerous amendments 
must still be reconciled with a somewhat more generous 
House of Representatives measure.  As he left the 
White House on a political fund-raising trip to two 
western states, Mr. Clinton said the sooner the 
Congress can demonstrate support for Colombia's 
embattled democracy, the better:

            /// Clinton Act ///

      They're in the fight of their lives for their 
      very way of life, with the combined pressure of 
      a guerrilla war that's been going on for decades 
      and the rise of the narco-traffickers over the 
      last two decades.  I don't think the average 
      American can imagine what it would be like to 
      live in a country where a third of the country 
      on any given day may be in the hands of someone 
      that is an enemy, an adversary, of the nation-
      state.

            /// End Act ///

Mr. Clinton said final approval would encourage 
European and other would-be donors to join the United 
States in supporting Colombian President Pastrana's 
national reconstruction program.

The aid plan would provide training and material 
support, including helicopters, for anti-drug units of 
the Colombian military and national police.

Critics of the plan in both parties in Congress 
contend it will inevitably draw the United States into 
the Colombian government's long-running conflict with 
leftwing rebels, while at the same time helping a 
Colombian army accused of human rights abuses.

Proponents, however, say the package includes adequate 
guarantees on human rights and on keeping U-S aid and 
military trainers out of the guerrilla war.

The Colombia aid plan is part of an overall 13-and-a-
half-billion dollar foreign aid and military 
assistance bill nearing approval in the Senate.

In his talk with reporters, Mr. Clinton also welcomed 
progress in the Senate on the bill -- already approved 
by the House -- giving China permanent, normal U-S 
trade status.

The White House had feared that a lengthy amendment 
process in the Senate might delay decisions on the 
controversial China trade bill until September and 
possibly cause it to fall victim to campaign politics.

But the president said Senate Majority leader Trent 
Lott has promised timely action after Congress returns 
from its Fourth-of-July, Independence Day, recess and 
that he and the key Republicans are, as he put it, "on 
the same page and working together" to complete work 
by the end of next month.   (Signed)

NEB/DAG/JP




22-Jun-2000 11:57 AM EDT (22-Jun-2000 1557 UTC)
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Source: Voice of America
.