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Updated:5/24/01 |
| Statement
from Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-Minnesota), August 23, 2000 For Immediate Release
Wellstone Blasts
Clinton Waiver of Human Rights Conditions on Colombia -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone (D-MN) sharply criticized President Clinton's decision yesterday to sign a waiver authorizing distribution of a $1.3 billion military aid package for the Colombian Government and the Andean region, even though it has not met human rights conditions set by Congress. Wellstone said the executive decision tells Colombia's military and civilian leadership, and the international community, that the U.S. government does not mean what it says on human rights. "The Administration had a responsibility to deny this military aid to Colombia. Waiving the human rights conditions is a profound mistake. It sends a dangerous message to the Colombian army and Colombia's civilian leadership that U.S. commitment to human rights does not go beyond mere rhetoric. In light of the massacres committed by paramilitary death squads at La Union and El Salado, which have often been linked to the Colombian army, this is a reckless decision. After the attack on six school children by the Colombian army last week, it is downright irresponsible," Wellstone said. During the debate in Congress over military aid to Colombia, Wellstone strongly opposed the package because the Clinton Administration's call for a massive increase in military counternarcotics assistance for Colombia would put the U.S. at a crossroads. With this assistance plan the U.S. is backing a major escalation in aid to a military with a terrible human rights record, and which could worsen a civil war that has already raged for almost 40 years, rather than pursue a more effective policy focused on stabilizing Colombia and attacking the drug market by investing in prevention and treatment at home. "The Colombian government has not complied with a single one of the five human rights conditions contained in that package. This failure should have lead the President and the State Department to suspend aid until the Colombian government makes the changes necessary to guarantee respect for human rights. A waiver that ignores Colombia's abysmal human rights situation gives the green light to the Colombian military to continue business as usual," Wellstone said. Wellstone also cited a landmark study of cocaine markets by the conservative RAND Corporation which found that, dollar for dollar, providing treatment to cocaine users is 10 times more effective than drug interdiction schemes and 23 times more cost effective than eradicating coca at its source. As of May 24, 2001, this document was available online at http://wellstone.senate.gov/colombia3.htm |
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