TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=COLOMBIA DRUG MEETING (L-ONLY)

BYLINE=RHODA METCALFE

DATELINE=SAN JOSE

INTERNET=YES

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: In Costa Rica, a high-profile meeting to discuss the growing military approach to the war on drugs and the faltering peace process in Colombia has ended with no clear consensus. Colombian civilian, church and human rights groups organized the gathering. As Rhoda Metcalfe reports from San Jose, the meeting allowed Colombian civilians to voice their fears of an escalating war, but produced no concrete results.

TEXT: As the three-day meeting came to an end, one of the main organizers, Gloria Flores, made an impassioned appeal to stop the anti-drug strategy known as Plan Colombia.

/// ACT FLORES (IN SPANISH) //

Plan Colombia will bring an escalation of the guerrilla war, the fumigation will destroy our environment and impoverish thousands of small farmers, Ms. Flores stated before the crowd of more than 400 participants.

Representatives from more than 30 European, North American and Latin American governments, including high-ranking Colombian government officials also joined the discussion. But the broad coalition of non-governmental organizations that put this meeting together failed to achieve its main goal -- to persuade the Colombian government to take a step back from the military-heavy anti-drug strategy.

The U-S government is backing the plan with more than one billion dollars in aid, including 60 helicopters and troop training.

The anti-drug program includes a fumigation campaign to eradicate drug crops and targets left-wing guerrillas who protect and profit from them.

Colombian government officials held fast to their conviction that a tough approach is the only way to stop large scale growers of cocaine crops and to close off drug financing to the powerful guerrilla groups.

But Colombian peace advocates, like Daniel Garcia-Penya, disappointed that they were not able to derail the military component of Plan say the meeting was nevertheless, not a total failure. He says, the peace process in Colombia is at a precarious stage. Many Colombians believe war is the only way to deal with the guerrillas and drug production.

/// ACT GARCIA-PENYA ///

Meetings like this keep the hope of negotiations alive, but in no way do we ignore the fact that the war will continue to escalate, that things are going to get much worse before they start getting better.

/// END ACT ///

Organizers hope the meetings put extra pressure on European

governments to decide in the coming weeks what kind of support they will offer Colombia in its struggle for peace and an end to the drug problem.

NEB/RM/FC