DATE=8/24/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=CLINTON-COLOMBIA (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-265832
BYLINE=DAVID GOLLUST
DATELINE=WHITE HOUSE
CONTENT=


INTRO:  The Clinton administration is insisting its 
plan for stepped-up security assistance to Colombia is 
aimed at strengthening President Andres Pastrana's 
anti-drug campaign and not to fight leftwing 
insurgents there.  President Clinton waived human 
rights conditions this week to speed the delivery of 
U-S aid. VOA's David Gollust reports from the White 
House.


TEXT:  The one-point-three billion dollar aid package 
- including the provision of U-S helicopters and 
military trainers  -- was approved by Congress last 
month despite concern by some members of both parties 
that it will drag the United States into Colombia's 
long-running civil war. 

Briefing reporters on President Clinton's visit to 
Colombia next week, White House National Security 
Adviser Sandy Berger rejected the notion the United 
States is heading for a Vietnam-style U-S involvement 
in Colombia:

            /// BERGER ACTUALITY ///

      You should learn from what happened before. But 
      the fact is this is nothing similar what-so-
      ever. We're talking about a few hundred American 
      people going to train some Colombian army 
      battalions - vetting them for human rights, 
      training them in human rights as well - who will 
      have a greater capability to provide security 
      for the Colombian national police when they go 
      in to try to destroy crops. That is the 
      parameters of our undertaking.

            /// END ACT ///

A principle aim of the U-S policy is helping Colombian 
security forces re-assert control over the coca-
growing areas of the southern part of the country 
where both drug traffickers and leftwing insurgents 
operate freely. 

Mr. Berger said it is hard to imagine democracy 
surviving in Colombia over the long-term unless the 
grip of the drug kingpins is reversed and the 
insurgency ends. But he made clear the United States 
wants to see a negotiated solution to the civil 
conflict:

            /// BERGER ACT TWO ///

      We don't think there is a military solution to 
      the guerrilla war in Colombia. Nor does 
      President Pastrana. That is why he has embarked 
      upon such a vigorous peace initiative. He has 
      taken risks in doing that. There is a deeper 
      level of dialogue and engagement than there has 
      been before. It's going to be a long process. 
      This has been a 40-year insurgency. But we don't 
      see there being a military solution.
      
            /// END ACT ///

President Clinton late Tuesday invoked national 
security considerations to waive human rights 
conditions set by Congress for the aid package though 
Mr. Berger insisted President Pastrana is committed to 
human rights reform in the military and will fulfill 
the U-S terms over time. 

Mr. Clinton's one-day trip to Colombia next Wednesday 
will be the first visit by a U-S President in a decade 
and it is intended as a visible show of support for 
Mr. Pastrana and "Plan Colombia" - his more than seven 
billion dollar national renewal program. (Signed)

NEB/DAG/TVM/PT



24-Aug-2000 17:24 PM EDT (24-Aug-2000 2124 UTC)
NNNN

Source: Voice of America
.