Drug watch by air OK in Colombia

The Associated Press

BOGOTA, Colombia -- President Bush has approved a resumption of U.S.-supported drug surveillance flights over Colombia after a two-year suspension, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Tuesday.

Rumsfeld, speaking in an interview en route from Washington to the Colombian capital, said he had discussed the matter with Bush and concluded that it would bolster Colombia's counternarcotics effort.

Rumsfeld offered no details on the new arrangement. He said it would be announced later by the White House.

Secretary of State Colin Powell had recommended to the White House in early August that the drug surveillance flights resume with new safeguards in place to minimize the possibility of an incident like that of two years ago, when a plane carrying a U.S. missionary and her child was mistakenly shot down.

The flights were stopped in April 2001 after a Peruvian fighter jet acting on U.S. intelligence shot down the missionary plane, killing Veronica Bowers and her daughter, Charity. Investigators said procedural errors, language problems and inadequate Peruvian air control caused the mistake.

The new safeguards for flights over Colombia are said to include clearer procedures for identifying and communicating with suspected drug-trafficking planes and establishing a chain of command for making decisions to fire on a plane. The final decision on using force would be left to the Colombians.

In the interview, Rumsfeld also said the United States is considering expanding its assistance to Colombia's counterdrug and counterinsurgency efforts.

Rumsfeld expressed confidence in President Alvaro Uribe's approach to defeating rebel forces led by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. Uribe has cracked down on the rebels with intensified military operations; U.S. Army Green Berets are training Colombian government troops.

"I'm impressed. I think they've made solid progress," Rumsfeld said. He was spending Tuesday in Colombia and Wednesday in Honduras.

Colombia is engaged in a four-decade-long civil war that has killed an estimated 3,500 people a year.

The defense secretary said he does not expect any increase in the number of U.S. troops in Colombia, but he indicated that the Pentagon is willing to look for other ways it can boost its assistance.

While in Bogota Rumsfeld was meeting with Uribe as well as his minister of defense, Marta Lucia Ramirez.

"The Colombians are in every sense holding up their side of the partnership against narcoterrorism, and so we are always trying to find ways that we can be helpful," Rumsfeld said.