Law Could Threaten U.S. Aid Disbursement

By Scott Wilson
Washington Post Foreign Service

BOGOTA, Colombia, Aug. 16 -- The Colombian government announced today that President Andres Pastrana had signed legislation giving the military broad new
powers to wage war with less scrutiny from government investigators, a measure some U.S. lawmakers have warned could threaten a key American aid package.

The measure, originated in large part by the Defense Ministry, is designed to give the military more latitude in fighting a growing guerrilla insurgency that dominates
large parts of Colombia's rural landscape. But human rights groups condemned Pastrana for signing a law they say will lead to fresh abuses by the Colombian
military, which is already criticized at home and abroad for having the hemisphere's worst human rights record.

The United States, through its $1.3 billion aid package, has been a strong supporter of the Colombian military even as it has imposed human rights training on the
units receiving U.S. assistance. Most of the aid package will arrive in the form of transport helicopters and military trainers, designed to help the military attack a drug
trade that helps finance two leftist guerrilla armies and a right-wing paramilitary force that battles them, often with tacit support from the army.

Pastrana, who has staked his presidency on achieving peace with the guerrillas, signed the measure under pressure from senior military commanders eager for a freer
hand in prosecuting a worsening civil war. The measure is the first substantive reform of Colombia's national security law since 1965, when the two major leftist
guerrilla groups were forming.

"Without a doubt, there needed to be a clarification of the hierarchy of the command, of the roles of the armed forces and the civilian population," said Sen. German
Vargas, who introduced the bill in the Colombian Senate. "This is going to allow us a variety of ways to combat terrorism. We can't [ignore] any longer what much of
the country is experiencing."

The measure allows the military to supercede civilian rule in areas declared by the president to be "theaters of operation" and reduces the chance that army troops
could be subjected to thorough human rights investigations by civilian government agencies.

Although the measure, in its original form, would have allowed the military to investigate all human rights charges against it, the final version gives the government's
ombudsman a role in such cases. However, human rights advocates said the ombudsman's role has been curtailed to such a degree that military crimes will not be
adequately addressed.

Until now, government human rights investigators were given as long as a year to conclude a preliminary investigation against military officials. The new law cuts that
time to a maximum of two months.

"There can't possibly be an investigation into such crimes within this amount of time," said Gustavo Gallon, director of the Colombian Commission of Jurists, a noted
human rights group. "This will permit even greater impunity for soldiers and police who violate human rights."

Many of the law's most controversial provisions, approved by the Senate but watered down in the House, were dropped from the final version. But the measure
does give the military judicial authority to make arrests and conduct criminal investigations, duties normally carried out by the attorney general's office, if a prosecutor
from that office is not available.

In addition, a provision was dropped that would have specifically allowed the Colombian military to create government-regulated civilian militias, an idea recently
endorsed by the Rand Corp., a Santa Monica, Calif.-based research organization.

Since Colombia's Congress passed the law in July, U.S. lawmakers, including Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), chairman of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee for
Foreign Operations, have told Pastrana that further disbursements from the aid package could be threatened if he signed the bill. About 75 percent of the aid
package, a major part of Pastrana's Plan Colombia that is intended to stop drug trafficking and end the war, has been disbursed.

Pastrana signed the measure Monday without the slightest hint he had done so. His government announced it only today, and made it the 14th and final item on its
daily news briefing.

But the final version was apparently watered down enough to satisfy the State Department. "As far as we're concerned, this legislation is much improved over the
original version," a State Department official said. "We're confident that [Pastrana] will interpret it to maximize the safeguarding of human rights."

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