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AXWORTHY PULLS CANADA INTO COLOMBIA QUAGMIRE
By Kimball Cariou
(This article is from the Feb. 1-14/2000 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.)
THE FEDERAL LIBERALS are stepping up Canadian support for one side in Colombia's 35-year long civil war. Foreign Affairs Minister Lloyd Axworthy has committed Canada to help the Colombian government in its "struggle against the drug trade" and to assist with peace negotiations.
News reports in mid-January said Axworthy held talks with Colombian President Andres Pastrana and U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. Axworthy announced several Canadian initiatives he claimed would "contribute to stability and security" in the South American country.
"Illicit drug-trafficking is a major challenge facing all of us in the Americas," he said, adding that countries that supply illicit drugs are "being infected as much by the drug traffic" as the consuming countries.
Under an agreement signed Jan. 14, an unspecified number of RCMP officers will be sent to Colombia. Axworthy said they would help train Colombian police in human-rights issues and help in the fight against drug-trafficking and money-laundering.
The two countries will also co-operate on promoting community treatment programs to rehabilitate and retrain Colombian youths affected by the drug trade.
Regarding the frequently-interrupted peace talks between the Pastrana government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Axworthy said the Canadian contribution would be similar to its efforts in Northern Ireland, where General John de Chastelain heads the disarmament commission to dispose of weapons of paramilitary organizations. He also said Canada hopes to provide expertise on conflict resolution and reintegrating guerrilla fighters back into civilian life.
Referring to Ottawa's motives, Axworthy said Canada has "an interest in building a secure environment" in Colombia, noting his discussions with Canadian businesspersons who would consider the country "an attractive place to invest" if the "unrest" was ended.
On another level, Canada's deepening involvement in the Colombian quagmire is "complementary" to that of the United States, to use Axworthy's own term. Earlier in January, President Clinton offered Colombia $1.6 billion in largely military aid to help "fight the drug war." Colombia is already the third-largest recipient of U.S. military aid, after Egypt and Israel. It received nearly $300 million last year.
Axworthy commented that "the U.S. effort is very strongly oriented toward the military side, while Canada is working on the civil side, on human rights." The clear implication is that Washington has assigned Ottawa the "good cop" role in shoring up the Colombian ruling elite against growing rebel strength and labour militancy.
Despite evidence that large sections of the corrupt Colombian state are involved in the drug trade and the right-wing paramilitary gangs which have murdered tens of thousands of people, Albright praised the "progress Colombia has already made on human-rights issues."
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