UN WIRE
Wednesday, 23 February 2000
Klaus Nyholm, head of the UN Drug Control Program in Colombia, Monday criticized US plans to send $1.6 billion in aid to the country's military, saying the package contained "too much stick and not enough carrot."
The US proposal, announced last month, is still being debated in the US Congress. If approved, most funds would go to the Colombian military. Critics say the package contains little to improve Colombia's social problems, and say it will drag the United States into the country's long-running war. "We're not against the stick but we must increase the proportion of the carrot," Nyholm said.
Despite his criticism, Nyholm admitted there has been a shortfall in UN funding for peasants to shift from coca production to legal crops. Over the past 10 years, the UN has spent $35 million for crop substitution programs in Colombia, which provides 80% of the world's cocaine. The US aid package would give Colombia $80 million for crop substitution efforts.
Proponents of the US plan say it will force Colombian guerillas -- who are allegedly earning large sums of money through the drug trade -- to negotiate an end to their three-decade uprising against the government. "We know the guerillas are linked to the drug traffickers and impose a tax (on drug production) in some cases," Nyholm said. He declined, however, to describe Colombia's rebels as "narcoguerillas" (Reuters/MSNBC, 21 Feb).
February 21, 2000
Reuters
BOGOTA — A top U.N. anti-drug official on Monday criticised U.S. plans to send $1.6 billion in mostly military aid to Colombia, saying it contained "too much stick and not enough carrot."
The U.S. Congress is debating U.S. President Bill Clinton's record aid proposal to help the embattled Andean nation fight spiraling cocaine and heroin output as well as Marxist rebels.
But critics warn the package contains little to alleviate Colombia's grinding social problems and say the aid will drag Washington deep into a long-running war that has claimed more than 35,000 lives in the past 10 years.
"There's too much stick and not enough carrot ... We're not against the stick but we must increase the proportion of carrot," Klaus Nyholm, head of the U.N. Drug Control Programme (UNDCP), said in an interview with a small group of journalists.
According to CIA figures released last week, Colombia produced some 520 tons (528 tonnes) of cocaine last year as illegal drug plantations increased 20 percent.
Colombia is blamed for 80 percent of world cocaine supply and also for smuggling a large proportion of the high-grade heroin sold on U.S. streets. But Nyholm also struck out at the United States, calling it the "world's biggest marijuana grower."
Despite his criticism of the proposed U.S. aid package for 2000 and 2001, Nyholm conceded that there had been a shortfall in U.N. funding to help peasants who grow coca leaf -- the raw material for cocaine -- switch to legal crops.
In the past decade, the United Nations has spent about $35 million sponsoring crop substitution projects in Colombia. Of the $1.6 billion U.S. aid package, about $140 million is destined for alternative economic development, with $80 million of that specifically for crop substitution.
Some political analysts have lauded the U.S. aid plan, saying it will force the guerrillas to negotiate a serious deal to end their three-decade-old uprising.
U.S. and Colombian officials accuse the rebels of reaping a fortune from the drug trade to fund their war.
"We know the guerrillas are linked to the drug traffickers and impose a tax (on drug production) in some cases," Nyholm said, but declined to describe the rebels as "narcoguerrillas."
© 2000 Reuters Ltd.
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