Excerpt from press conference with Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Lorne Craner following release of annual human rights reports, March 4, 2002

Excerpt from press conference with Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Lorne Craner following release of annual human rights reports, March 4, 2002

Q On Colombia, I don't know if you have in mind Colombian situation and human rights. I would like you try to compare with another countries what will be the Colombian situation in human rights watch -- I mean human rights?

MR. CRANER: I do have Colombia very much in mind, because I think it's the first country I visited twice on this job. The human rights situation there obviously remains poor. You're no doubt aware of the certification requirements we're under in terms of the military/paramilitary cooperation. There are also a number of abuses, great abuses, I would say, on the FARC/ELN/AUC side, beginning with kidnapping, beginning with deaths and torture, and working your way all the way through child labor.

So it's a situation where the country is democratic and holds democratic elections, but because of the war, there are a lot of human rights problems ongoing in Colombia, and it's something we here are spending a great deal of time on, as you're no doubt aware, and have for the last -- for the months we've been in power. But it's an issue of -- a country of great, great concern to us.

Q Are you still concerned about links between army and paramilitary forces?

MR. CRANER: I'll tell you, my opinion is that at the higher levels, the army understands, the generals understand that working with people like the AUC is not conducive to a good strategy of eliminating an insurgency. I still think that at the lower levels, there are still probably links. And the Colombian army needs to take care of those.

Q You mentioned the certification of aid to Colombia, and I wonder if your report paves the way for the certification of that. Have you seen enough progress in breaking the links between the army and the paramilitaries?

MR. CRANER: We're still working with the government of Colombia on it. We've walked through with them some things that we would like to see, and we're -- we'll be talking to them further about that.

So I would not take the issuance of this report as meaning that the certification's imminent.

Q I just want you to refocus your attention on Colombia and this certification process. And could you please provide us more details on what kind of talks are you holding with Colombian government? And the second question is, if these same provisions of the Foreign Aid Act apply to the Andean Regional Initiative countries?

MR. CRANER: The provisions being discussed are provisions about the links between the army and the AUC in Colombia, the paramilitaries. The discussions we have had -- I've had two sets -- actually four sets of discussions with the Colombian government, and others in the State Department have other discussions with very high- level figures on the civilian side and on the military side of the government in Colombia about these links.

Q (Off mike) -- what about the other countries in the Andean region?

MR. CRANER: Well, these -- the kind of situation we're discussing, where there are links between the army --

Q No, no -- between the foreign aid and the certification.

MR. CRANER: I'm not aware -- no, I don't think there are other human rights certifications required for other Andean Regional Initiative countries.