Joint press availability with Andrés Pastrana, president of Colombia, and Madeleine Albright, secretary of state, April 11, 2000

Joint press availability with Andrés Pastrana, president of Colombia, and Madeleine Albright, secretary of state, April 11, 2000
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Office of the Spokesman

April 11, 2000

JOINT PRESS AVAILABILITY WITH PRESIDENT OF COLOMBIA ANDRES PASTRANA AND SECRETARY OF STATE MADELEINE K. ALBRIGHT

Treaty Room

Washington, D.C.

SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: Good afternoon. I am very pleased to welcome President Pastrana to the Department of State, where we just had a very friendly and productive meeting. President Pastrana is a true leader who has earned world respect, through his comprehensive plan and his determined effort to bring peace and the rule of law to his people.

It's no secret that Colombia is under siege by drug traffickers and illegal armed groups that have victimized average citizens in both cities and the countryside, and sought to terrorize judges, prosecutors and other judicial personnel.

The United States has pledged to assist Colombians in building security, halting the production of illegal drugs, and exploring prospects for a peaceful end to their long-standing internal conflict.

Earlier this year, President Clinton proposed $1.6 billion in emergency supplemental appropriations for Colombia, and that request has since been approved by the House of Representatives, but it being delayed in the Senate.

Today, I renew the Administration's call for rapid action. Four-fifths of the cocaine entering our country either comes from Colombia or is transported through it. Most of Colombia's heroin production also ends up here. Throughout the Americas, drug-related activities fuel crime and corruption, aggravate social problems, and retard economic progress.

The emergency aid President Clinton has requested will help Bogota extend its authority over parts of the country now dominated by guerrillas, paramilitaries and drug traffickers. It will support alternative development programs, increase our backing for narcotics interdiction, and strengthen mechanisms for judicial reform, human rights and humanitarian assistance.

Recognizing that neither criminals nor conflicts respect national borders, the President's request will also support counter-drug initiatives in other Andean countries.

Only Colombians can devise a solution for Colombia's ills, and President Pastrana has put forward a bold plan for doing just that. It's urgent that we support him, not with the promise of help but with its reality: not eventually but now.

In our meeting today, we discussed the Administration's aid request, Plan Colombia, President Pastrana's political reform initiative, and the central importance of building strong democratic institutions and improving respect for human rights.

Earlier this year, I had the pleasure of visiting Colombia. It's one of the most beautiful places on earth, with a magnificent culture and a lot of brave people risking their lives on behalf of peace and law. And so I'm very glad to have President Pastrana, who is one of those brave people, here. And I'm very honored, Mr. President, that you have come to see us again.

PRESIDENT PASTRANA: Thank you, Madame Secretary.

SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: Mr. President.

PRESIDENT PASTRANA: I think I have nothing more to add about what Madame Secretary has said about our meeting. I think it was a very productive meeting. We talked about the Plan Colombia, how it's going forward in the US Congress, and we hope to get this aid from the United States as soon as possible.

We talked about our political reforms, and how to implement the strategy to fight narcotics and to implement these alternative development programs in these areas, in which we have problems right now in our country.

So once again, Madame Secretary, thank you very much for giving us the opportunity to be here in the State Department. And I think that we're open for questions.

Q: Mr. President and Madame Secretary, there are reports that Russian mobs are supplying FARC guerrillas in Colombia with sophisticated arms in exchange for cocaine. Can you verity these reports, and has an effort been made to stop or interrupt these shipments?

PRESIDENT PASTRANA: I talked this morning with General Tapias, Chief Commander of the Armed Forces of Colombia, and we are investigating this report that I think was brought on TV in the weekend. We're investigating, but we don't have the real, real evidence at this moment. We are controlling - with the armed forces, we are controlling with the police our borders to avoid any entrance of arms and shipments of arms to our country that are going to be used in the insurgent groups or the guerrilla groups. But we don't have any evidence at this moment of the information that was brought on TV on the weekend.

SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: From our perspective, we are obviously concerned about the acquisition of arms by Colombian rebels. That's a matter of concern to us and something that we watch very carefully. We are also concerned about reports of Russian organized crime activity in Colombia, and the increased demand for cocaine in Europe and Russia and the former Eastern European countries. But we are not in a position to discuss these assertions of intelligence information.

Q: President Pastrana, this morning Drug Czar Barry McCaffrey said that the paramilitaries had a plan to kill you. Can you talk about that, please?

PRESIDENT PASTRANA: At the moment we don't have any information. I don't think that's the only plan to kill ourselves that we've known about it. We had some - as you remember, some months ago there was a plan to kill us, but we don't have any, at this moment, any type of information regarding a criminal attempt by the paramilitaries to kill the president of Colombia.

Q: First, President Pastrana, you said that you want to get this money as quickly as possible. Is there a time after which you would feel it's too late to get your plan moving? How soon do you need it, realistically?

And then for Secretary Albright, just before he left, Prime Minister Barak said that he was prepared to give -- to cede two Jerusalem suburbs -- they're contiguous suburbs -- to the Palestinians. Do you find that helpful?

PRESIDENT PASTRANA: As I said before, the sooner the better. I think that, as you know, I only have two more years in the presidency. I cannot be re-elected. And I really want to implement as soon as possible the program that we have discussed with the United States and we are discussing with Europe -- the Plan Colombia.

I think that if we really want to avoid the growing of this type of crops, of cocaine or poppy in Colombia, we need the money, because we need to invest not only in the eradication program but also investing in the alternative development programs. And we need to work as soon as possible. We have a commitment to eradicate 50 percent of these crops in the next five years.

As you remember, in the last four years, crops doubled in our country, and that's why we think that, not only with the resources for promoting alternative development but also the resources to support the police and the army in this fight against drugs will be very important for us. So I think that the sooner, as I said, the better. And we will start to implement this program as soon as possible.

SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: Let met just add, as we've said a number of times -- President Clinton has made this very clear -- is that it's urgent that we get this done, which is why the President presented it in a supplemental and now wants to have it move. We have put a great deal of effort into it and President Pastrana himself has spent a lot of time on this, as has his ambassador here, and I think we need to move this forward. It is an urgent issue; otherwise, we would not have presented it as an urgent issue.

On the issue of Prime Minister Barak, he is coming here to talk to us about the whole process of moving the Palestinian track on as quick a basis as we can get it done. Again, here this an issue that needs to be done as rapidly as it can, given the movement of the calendar. And so, obviously, the movement of villages and transfer of land is one of the questions that comes up, and we'll be talking about it when he gets here.

Q: Mr. President and Madame Secretary, for both of you, how is this referendum thing going to affect the aid for Colombia?

PRESIDENT PASTRANA: Well, I don't think it has anything to do, really. We're proposing a political reform that we proposed as a candidate. Now we are getting through a referendum that it's a constitutional way of really reforming our political institutions, reforming and fighting one of the most dangerous cancers that we have; that is, corruption. But I don't think it has anything to do with the Plan, with the Colombia Plan by the country.

I think that's something that is co-united -- corruption and peace. As you know, many of the violence in our country, even the insurgent groups says and we've been saying for many years, is caused because of corruption. And that's why, I think for the first time, we're attacking one problem in the same time with political reform and, at the same time, bringing up and going forward with the table of negotiations.

SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: The President and I talked about this, and I was very interested in his plans. And I think it's just one more sign of President Pastrana's dedication to make his country work, and to have the support of the people, and to move forward on a very large agenda that is important to making Colombia a democratic, non-corrupt and good participating country in the problems of the region, as well as in our hemisphere. So I was very interested in the president's move on this.

Q: Madame Secretary, I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts on the elections in Peru, which seem to be coming close to their conclusion at the moment.

SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: Well, I think that what is of concern to us is that there seems to be conflicting information on the results from the international observers, and what comes out of Peru itself. The final results are not available yet, as you know, but I think that we are concerned about the inconsistencies. And I think that one of the questions here will be is how they handle it there. Because I think that there will be a question about the legitimacy, if these kinds of inconsistencies are there, between what the international observers are saying and what the local reports are.

Q: (In Spanish.)

PRESIDENT PASTRANA: I don't think there is any international chaos in Colombia, because we can vote the referendum: 97 percent, or between 90 to 97 percent of the polls show the people supporting the referendum to fight corruption and to change the way of doing politics in Colombia -- financing the campaigns, what are we going to do with the reform of the congress, and fight really corruption in the whole state. I think that the polls show that we have a big support that Colombia is wanting and willing to vote in the referendum to change the way of doing politics in our country.

Secondly, regarding our economy, today even we have a meeting with the IMF and we were going to talk to them about the targets and the goals that as the Colombian Government we were committed, and we are on the schedule to approve these reforms. We hope that the congress of Colombia will approve the reforms, the economic reforms in this legislature, that it will finish or end it in the middle of June. And we hope that in the second term, if we elect a new congress in December, or otherwise after the 20th of July, in the second legislature of this year.

We were going to talk with the IMF. We will have a meeting also with Secretary Summers this afternoon, the Treasury Secretary, also to exchange some of the ideas.

But the Colombia Government is committed. We have some goals, we are on the schedule, and we hope that the congress will approve the reforms that right now are inside the house and in the senate of Colombia.

SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: The president and I discussed this also, and I think that his commitment to following through with what the IMF has been talking about is very important. It goes to the question that you asked about the status of assistance. And the president has obviously thought these issues through, so that following through on a schedule should not be a problem.

Q: Madame Secretary, what is the U.S. doing, or what might it do to try to prepare for an orderly Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon if, indeed, a withdrawal can be put in a Syrian overall agreement?

SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: Well, I think that what has been said, over and over again, is that Resolution 425 and 426 are, in effect, the resolutions that have been governing this, and the Israelis have indicated that they would do it in accordance with Resolution 425. And we are going to be discussing this further with them, as well as with the United Nations.

Q: But do you have any -- can you offer us any practical steps that the U.S. might take, because there's concern? Certainly Mr. Barak has expressed concern that this could be a violent situation.

SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: Well, we hope very much that it would not end up that way. Obviously, it is a difficult border. Mr. Barak has indicated that he would withdraw. It's kind of strange that countries are criticized from withdrawing from territory. And I think that we will be watching it very carefully.

But he has made very clear that he would do it in accordance with 425, and I think that that is a very important statement coming from his side.

Q: Mr. Pastrana, the rural portions of your population do not have access to health care, and I just wondered, why are you here seeking military support instead of supplying your own population with health care out in the countryside?

And, Secretary Albright, the bulk of the military aid that you're attempting to deliver to Colombia is to be spent in the south where the cocaine is grown, but that's also where the FARC, the leftist rebels, are the strongest. These paramilitary groups which you've also mentioned are in the north and it looks as though the money is really aimed at fighting the communists rather than the paramilitaries, who are also a great source of problems in Colombia.

Could you address those issues?

PRESIDENT PASTRANA: If you will allow me, I will try to get also in the second question. I think one important thing of Plan Colombia is that Plan Colombia is a plan for the whole country. It's not only for the south of the country. And that's why we're investing our own money. Colombia is putting near $4 billion in this program; the U.S. is putting $1.6 billion, and the rest we're asking from the international community. So we're going to invest in the north and the south and the east and the west. The worst thing that could happen to the country is to fracture the country; that if you're in war we're going to invest resources, but if you're in peace we're not going to invest resources. And that's why the plan is committed to investing in the whole country.

Secondly, that's a very good question, the one you ask about health -- not only health, housing, fighting poverty. Colombia is investing $1.2 billion a year in fighting drugs to avoid drugs to come into the United States, and to go into Europe. That's why sometime many people ask me that question. Why the Colombia Government is investing instead of housing, in water supply, in health, in avoiding drugs to go into the United States and to Europe.

And that's why we are proposing Plan Colombia, because instead of pointing out who is the responsible of this problem, we know that we have a common enemy: that is, narco-trafficking, that it not only causes poverty in our country. We are very poor country and we are investing a lot of money in avoiding drugs to come to the United States.

And that's why, for the first time, we create a coherent, comprehensive program, called Plan Colombia, asking all the international community to be involved in these programs, not only to fight narcotics, the military side of narcotics or narco-trafficking, but also alternative development.

Most of the program that we want to invest in the Plan Colombia wants to go really into implement policies on health, on structural reforms, strengthening our institutions, human rights and alternative development and social investment. We want to invest most of this money that we're asking for the international community in social development, because we can not solve only the problem looking at this as a military problem or a policing aspect or the repression problem.

We want to get into the real essence of the problem: that is, bringing back to Colombia prosperity and health and richness to our people, and that's the way of eradicating drugs from our soil and from our territory.

SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: Let me say in discussing Plan Colombia with President Pastrana, throughout its formation and when I was down there and generally in the very close contacts we have, what I have been most impressed by is the comprehensiveness of this. In the number of meetings, internal meetings that I've had here on Colombia, it has been so evident to me that not only do we have to deal with the narco-trafficking problem, the issue of the peace process, the social issues, anti-corruption -- that this all goes together.

And what was so impressive about Plan Colombia is that it does, in fact, knit all these various pieces together. In terms of what we're asking for, $240 million over two years is actually going to alternative development, to assist in some of the internal problems and try to enhance good governance, work on the anti-corruption, human rights and various other social issues that are very important.

So we see it as a comprehensive program. Obviously, the narco-trafficking is the core, the guts of the problem that we have to deal with, and that's why the money is addressed to helping the police, and then the military to provide protection for the police. And the military battalions that are going along with this have been specially selected, and each of them cleared case by case on human rights issues.

And on the paramilitaries, we are very concerned about those. The president and I discussed it when I was in Cartagena, and we just spent a lot of time talking about them here. So that is also a part of the problem that has to be dealt with. They are part of the problem, not part of the solution.

As of April 12, 2000, this document was also available online at http://usinfo.state.gov/admin/011/lef201.htm