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DATE=8/30/2000 TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT TITLE=CLINTON-COLOMBIA (L) NUMBER=2-265990 BYLINE=DAVID GOLLUST DATELINE=CARTAGENA, COLOMBIA CONTENT= VOICED AT: INTRO: President Clinton is in Colombia for a one-day visit to stress U-S support for the government of Colombian President Andres Pastrana and its struggle against drug traffickers. There is extraordinary security in place for the visit, the first by a U-S President to Colombia in a decade. Correspondent David Gollust reports from the Caribbean port city of Cartagena. TEXT: The Clinton visit is brief, but crowded with events underscoring the U-S commitment to the Pastrana government and its efforts to restore the rule of law in a country torn by drug violence and a chronic leftwing insurgency. After an airport welcome from the Colombian President, the two leaders - both in shirtsleeves -- left by motorcade for a briefing on drug-interdiction efforts at the Cartagena port complex. They also toured a U-S funded center where legal services are being extended to the city's poor. With Republican Party support, Mr. Clinton last month pushed through Congress a one-point-three billion dollar Colombia aid package that includes training and helicopters for anti-drug units of the Colombian security forces. The plan has been criticized as intervention that could inflame Colombia's three-decade civil conflict. But Mr. Clinton said Tuesday in a broadcast message to Colombians the United States supports peace efforts by Mr. Pastrana and does not believe the insurgency can be resolved by force of arms: /// CLINTON ACT /// Please do not misunderstand our purpose. We have no military objective. We do not believe your conflict has a military solution. We support the peace process. Our approach is both pro-peace, and anti-drug. /// END ACT /// Last week, Mr. Clinton waived human-rights conditions attached to the aid package to speed its delivery to Colombia - prompting complaints from human-rights groups and some members of Congress. But administration officials insist Mr. Pastrana is committed to dealing with human-rights violations by Colombian security forces and paramilitary groups allied with them. The choice of Cartagena for the Clinton visit was driven by security concerns. It is more than 600- kilometers from the capital, Bogota, which is plagued by criminal violence, and is even farther from the southern part of the country where drug gangs and rebels have a nearly free reign. None-the-less thousands of Colombian police and soldiers - and hundreds of U-S security agents - have been deployed here for the President's visit. It is the first visit by a U-S President since George Bush visited the scenic port in 1990. In a show of bipartisan solidarity, Mr. Clinton was accompanied here by a big congressional delegation led by the Republican Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert. (SIGNED) NEB/DAG/RAE 30-Aug-2000 12:49 PM EDT (30-Aug-2000 1649 UTC) NNNN Source: Voice of America .