COLOMBIA Drug czar wants to keep funding

The program has led to a huge increase in drug seizures.
SANTA MARTA, Colombia (AP) -- The White House drug czar insisted that Washington should keep funding a costly campaign to root out drug traffickers and fumigate coca crops in Colombia even as he conceded that the program hasn't squeezed the cocaine market in the United States.
John Walters said the $3.3 billion, five-year military aid package known as Plan Colombia has provided Colombian forces with the necessary training, equipment and intelligence to turn the tide in the war on drugs.
"We have a history in the United States of not following through on programs like this," Walters said in an interview with The Associated Press at an anti-narcotics base. He had just returned to this coastal city after flying over blackened coca fields in nearby mountains.
During his three-day visit to Colombia, Walters also met with President Alvaro Uribe and attended a funeral for nine police officers killed in apparent retaliation for a drug seizure.
Increase in seizures
Plan Colombia has led to a huge increase in drug seizures, with 48 tons of cocaine confiscated in Colombia last year compared to just eight tons in 1999. Closer judicial cooperation between the two countries has allowed for 120 suspected drug traffickers to be extradited to the United States for trial in two years.
Despite the progress here, cocaine prices on U.S. streets remain unchanged, a sign there is no shortage of the drug.
"Thus far we have not seen a change of availability in the United States," Walters said.
He contends drug traffickers still have tons of cocaine stored along transport routes and draw upon this stock to keep prices low. If Colombian forces keep up the offensive, those stocks will start to run out, he said.
But aerial eradication, a key part of the aid package in which crop dusters fly over fields of coca and spray them with herbicides, has drawn sharp criticism, despite its success in reducing the area under cultivation. Coca is the raw ingredient in cocaine.
The amount of cultivated coca crops across the country fell to 280,000 acres last year, from 420,000 acres in 2001 -- a 33-percent drop, officials say.
Complaints
Peasants in the sprayed zones complain of health problems and rights groups say the herbicides kill banana and yucca plants. The U.S. and Colombian governments insist the spraying is safe and refuse to stop.
Still, Walters said Washington plans to re-examine the long-term fumigation strategy.
One concern is whether it's cost-effective. Colombia's counternarcotics police say 85 percent of sprayed crops are quickly replanted by farmers, meaning spray planes must repeatedly fly over the same zones.
Also, drug barons are quick to adapt.
Coca farmers have begun coating the plants with protective chemicals, planting in many small areas that are difficult to spot, or growing coca in national parks where aircraft are prohibited from fumigating,
Security problem
Another problem is security. Though they are escorted by helicopter gunships, the spray planes frequently come under small arms fire, according to a report from the U.S. General Accounting Office.
Two U.S. State Department-contracted pilots involved in eradication missions have been killed since 2000, and another three are being held by rebels. Last year, two planes were forced to land after being shot, and the State Department has since delayed seeking funds for new aircraft.
Walters said he believes fumigation remains important and effective, but that money could be used elsewhere.
"We need to make sure other areas are well-funded, such as interdiction," he said, referring to the use of radars and spy planes to track suspected drug smuggling flights. Nearly 30 planes have been forced down or destroyed on the ground by the Colombian air force this year.