Press briefing by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State William Brownfield, September 7, 2001

Press briefing by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State William Brownfield, September 7, 2001
FOREIGN PRESS CENTER BRIEFING WITH WILLIAM BROWNFIELD, DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE FOR WESTERN HEMISPHERE AFFAIRS ON SECRETARY OF STATE POWELL'S TRIP TO COLOMBIA

SEPTEMBER 7, 20001

Copyright ©2001 by Federal News Service, Inc., 620 National Press Building, Washington, DC 20045 USA. Federal News Service is a private firm not affiliated with the federal government. No portion of this transcript may be copied, sold or retransmitted without the written authority of Federal News Service, Inc. Copyright is not claimed as to any part of the original work prepared by a United States government officer or employee as a part of that person's official duties. For information on subscribing to the FNS Internet Service, please email Jack Graeme at info@fnsg.com or call (202)824-0570.

MR. BROWNFIELD: Thanks very much, and thank you, ladies and gentlemen. If I could start with just three or four minutes to lay the groundwork, and then obviously take whatever questions you all might have. I do, in fact, want to start the preview for next week's visit by the Secretary of State with a review of last week's visit by Undersecretary Grossman. His visit was to both Mexico and Colombia, although his Mexico stop was a Colombia focus, which is to say conversations with senior Mexican Government officials on Colombia and Colombia-related issues.

He went to Mexico last Monday. We went from Mexico via Miami to Colombia on Wednesday, and we were in Colombia Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Undersecretary Grossman's delegation was the first major U.S. government interagency delegation to visit Bogota since the inauguration of George Bush as president of the United States. It was, therefore, appropriately large and weighty. Besides the undersecretary, it included the Commander in Chief of the U.S. Southern Command, the acting deputy administrator of USAID, a deputy assistant attorney general from the Department of Justice, the acting deputy director of ONDCP, two deputy assistant secretaries of defense, a senior representative of the joint staff of the Department of Defense, and the assistant secretary of state for narcotics and law enforcement, the acting assistant secretary for democracy, human rights and labor, your own humble servant and I'm sure several individuals who I have now forgotten.

The three days in Colombia were divided roughly one-third, one- third, one-third between meetings with governmental officials, such as a large plenary meeting between the U.S. delegation and its Colombian counterparts, smaller meetings with President Pastrana and his core cabinet and other senior government officials. A second third of our time was spent in what I would call external meetings to the government, which is to say, meetings with human right, humanitarian and other NGOs of those communities, meetings with the United Nations special representative to Colombia, a number of other ambassadors representing other governments in Colombia, and a meeting with representatives with what I will call the alternative development community in Colombia.

And the third day, if you will, was devoted to a field trip by much of the delegation to southern Colombia, Putumayo Province specifically, with stops in Tres Esquinas in the extreme south, Larandia (ph) slightly further to the north, and a town of Puerto Assis (ph) located roughly between Larandia and Tres Esquinas.

Under Secretary Grossman emphasized five themes while he was in Colombia, and I would like to repeat these fairly clearly because we expect them to be emphasized again by the secretary during his trip to Colombia next week.

First, he emphasized support, continued support of the United States government for the peace process in Colombia. He went so far as to say that he did not see how Colombia could address and resolve the many crises that affected today without a successful peace process.

Second, he said at the same time we should be able to keep two ideas in our minds at the same time. On the one hand, support for the peace process; on the other hand acknowledgment and criticism of one of the parties, specifically the FARC guerrilla movement for abusing and not respecting the peace process. Undersecretary Grossman's point was it is possible to support the peace process and at the same timde criticize one of the parties for abusing it and call upon that party to treat the peace process as a serious endeavor.

His third message was drugs. In essence, he said it is equally impossible in our mind to envision a solution to Colombia's crises of today that do not take into account the cultivation, production and trafficking in illicit drugs that affect Colombia itself, its neighbors, and many, many other countries in the world.

His fourth message was human rights, the important of taking human rights concerns seriously the impossibility of resolving the larger package of Colombian issues without addressing human rights as well.

And finally, his fifth message, his most important message, the message that he most frequently repeated was, as he put it, Colombia matters. It matters to the other countries of the region. It matters to the United States of America; it matters to the international community. His subtle undermessage was, we understand and our support is here for the long haul.

Next Monday afternoon, the secretary of state departs, first for Lima, Peru and then from Lima to Bogota, Colombia. This will be the secretary's first trip to the Latin American region as the head of his trip; as presumably most of you know, he did accompany President Bush on his first trip outside of the United States to Guanajuato, Mexico in February of this year. But this will be the first visit by the Secretary of State heading a delegation to Latin America.

Ambassador Noriega, I'm sure, has briefed you in considerable detail as to the OAS elements of the Peru stop. There will also be some bilateral business and some non-OAS related business in Peru. Secretary Powell will meet with President Toledo, and we believe in the same meeting with Foreign Minister Garcias Sayan on Tuesday morning in Lima. He will, following the OAS general assembly plenary, have at least one, and if time permits perhaps two bilaterals with other foreign ministers who will be present at the OAS general assembly in Lima.

His themes, while articulated far more clearly and far more passionately than I will now lay them out, nevertheless his basic four core themes will track with the following: First, democracy and the importance of democratic transition. He will undoubtedly draw attention to the fact that Peru is a country whose government has successfully completed a very democratic transition. Second theme will be overall importance of the Western Hemisphere to the administration of George Bush. Something that has been articulated frequently since the 20th of January of this year.

A third theme will be the importance of multilateralism. The fact that he has gone to Lima to participate in an OAS event will draw attention, we hope, to the seriousness with which the United States government takes the OAS and takes the multilateral approach.

And fourth and finally, and I assume of no great surprise to any of you, while he is in Peru we expect and hope that he will draw attention to the president's Andean regional initiative, a proposal that is currently before the United States Congress for possible funding to provide support and assistance to the governments of seven countries of the Andean region as well as Brazil and Panama, to address programs and concerns related to the three d's, of democracy, development and drugs.

On Tuesday afternoon, the Secretary will arrive in Bogota. He will overnight in Bogota. He will be the first secretary of state to overnight in Bogota in many many years. While he is in Colombia, he will have meetings with President Pastrana and his core senior governmental officials, with the armed forces high command, as well as with the Colombian national police. The latter will be a meeting at one of their air bases near Bogota. He also will have a meeting with representatives of the human rights community, and he will have a meeting with representatives of the alternative development community. Both in Peru and Colombia, I am proud to report he will have much interaction with the press as well. The high points of his visits to both of those countries, I am certain. His themes will track fairly closely -- it should not surprise you -- with the themes that Undersecretary Grossman emphasized in Colombia last week. Intention of the United States to stay the course in its support for Colombia. The importance of the peace process. The equal importance that all parties to that process take it seriously and to negotiate seriously. The importance of respect for human rights and how certain organizations, such as self-defense forces or paramilitary organizations, are not consistent with an overall respect for human rights, and the impossibility of resolving these sorts of difficult issues without addressing the drug issue as well.

On his return from Colombia and Peru, the secretary will meet shortly thereafter with the leadership of the United States Congress here in Washington. It is our hope that following his briefing on his trip and a discussion on the key elements of the President's Andean Regional Initiative pending before the United States Senate that we will be able to report some time soon a commitment by the United States Congress to early action and attention to that bill.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what I propose by way of an introduction, and I believe I turn myself over to you now.

MODERATOR: Thank you. As always, please wait for the microphone and give your name and news organization. We'll start here.

Q (Name inaudible) -- BBC. Good afternoon. I wanted to ask you about the campaign against drugs in Colombia. there seems to be a pretty widespread perception that it's not going very well. President Pastrana said as much this week. Is the administration just pushing on regardless, or have you any reevaluation, or are you just continuing the policy charted by the Clinton Administration?

MR. BROWNFIELD: Actually, we would probably start by questioning the hypothesis of the question. From our perspective, our support through programs and assistance for President Pastrana's Plan Colombia is in fact not only going well but probably going better than we would have expected it to be going at this point in time. I would remind you all that our support for Plan Colombia was focused on five basic elements, what we called the "Push In" the south, support for interdiction, support for the Colombian National police, support for judicial reform, and finally support for alternative development and other developmental issues.

When last year was coming to a conclusion, I would invite you all to recall the situation in southern Colombia. It was in the midst of what the FARC was calling a "parro armado" (ph) in which virtually all the roads were severed by armed guerrilla, and in some instances armed paramilitary units. There was virtually no traffic. No people were going in or out. The economy was at a standstill. Law enforcement was virtually non-existent in Putumayo.

Since that time, and I would note, that's approximately nine months ago, a little bit less, there has been a rather massive eradication campaign, which has resulted in the probably eradication of more than 25,000 hectares in the province of Putumayo alone. More than 35,000 campesino families have signed pacts to eradicated their coca voluntarily, which if they carry that out will lead to another 35,000 hectares eradicated. The three battalions of the new counter- drug brigade have -- I do not have the precise numbers, but I believe we;'re talking about their having rolled up more than 200 coca or cocaine-processing labs and a number that is at least in the double digits of HCL processing labs. In short, I believe in pure numbers terms, there has been substantial progress.

There has been some criticism on one front, and it's criticism which we have heard off and on over the last fifteen to twenty years. And it's criticism of the concept of aerial eradication or spraying. We've heard this criticism since the 1980s. We have noted that in this instance, the chemical, the herbicide that is being criticized, glyphosate, is -- as you all have heard from us many times before and must hear yet once again -- is conceivably the most commonly used herbicide on the planet. It is legally used in more than 100 countries in the world, including the United States of America and most countries in Western Europe. It is in Colombia used for coca eradication at a rate of about ten percent of the total use of glyphosate. The other 90 percent being used for commercial purposes elsewhere in the country. It is the most tested and conceivably the most carefully examined herbicide in the world today. We have never seen any scientific evidence that suggests harm to humans or to animals or to the environment. In short, we believe there is a very good case to make and a very good story to tell about aerial eradication in Colombia. We are so certain of this, that Undersecretary Grossman last week announced the willingness of the United States government to participate in an effort to monitor on a regular systematic and ongoing basis any aerial eradication efforts that would be taking place in Colombia and at this state we are ready to work out the details to find a neutral scientific and objective institution that would play that role.

Q Javier Allendes (ph) with El Espectador. You said that the U.S. strongly supports the peace process and the peace talks, but there are any concerns in the U.S. government about the way President Pastrana is handling the peace process or the strategic keeping the DMC, the despeje?

MR. BROWNFIELD: Our view in terms of the peace process, its details, and how it is implemented is very simple. On the one hand, we support the peace process. We do not see a longterm permanent or definitive solution to Colombia's crises that do not include a peace process. On the other hand, how the peace process is implemented, whether there is a despeje or not, how big, how little, whether it is extended, whether it is not extended, all of those issues we believe are properly issues to be decided and determined by President Pastrana and his government. We acknowledge, we accept and we respect the sovereign authority of the government of Colombia to manage its own peace process. What Undwersecretary Grossman said last week was not in any way designed to suggest a change, an adjustment or a comment on the peace process; but rather to note that one of the parties involved in that peace process did not appear to be taking it seriously, and in fact appeared to be abusing it. And that, I'm afraid, is where I would have to leave that question from here.

Q Jose Puertas (ph) from (France Press ?). Congratulations on your nomination to Chile. We're going to miss your briefings. (Laughs.) This is going to be the last one. I'm going to take advantage and make two questions. (Laughs.) First you mentioned the possibility as to the very powers are to have at least two bilaterals in Lima, but you didn't give us any names. Is it possible to know who does he expect to be with? Second, on the Andean Regional Initiative, Venezuela has asked to be included, and the other countries have supported that request. What's the position of the State Department on that respect? And, lastly, if you can comment on what's going on in Caracas right now, the President Chavez denounced the military treaty with the United States and asked the military mission to move from their locale they have been occupying for many many years inside the premises of the minister of finance in Venezuela. Can you comment on that?

MR. BROWNFIELD: I believe your first two questions clearly fall within the purview of this briefing, and I will ponder as I answer them whether the third question, which clearly does not, should be answered.

First the other bilaterals on the Secretary's schedule while he is in Lima, it is in fact going to be a short period of time for bilaterals because he will be spending most of his time with the General Assembly, and therefore has very little time for bilaterals. However, it is fair to say that the foreign ministers of the Andean region, which would be Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela have asked for a group meeting, and we will try to accommodate that.

In addition, those of you who have not been sleeping for the last month or so will recall that there has been a major financial issue involving Argentina over the past month to month and a half, and there will be a brief bilateral between the secretary of state and the foreign minister of Argentina to discuss that among other issues.

Your second question was the issue of Venezuela and the Andean Regional Initiative. Venezuela in fact is one of the seven countries which would be enveloped or included in the Andean Regional Initiative. The Andean Regional Initiative, I would remind you, is the proposal to provide funding and support that the president has submitted to the United States Congress for a little over $882 million to help address concerns and issues relating to democracy, to development and trade, and to drugs. And Venezuela is in that proposal for $10.5 million of assistance.

Yes, you asked the wrong question, and no, I'm not going to let you change your mind in terms of the question that you asked. You did ask a third question, and that is the matter that has been reported in Venezuela concerning the physical location of the United States military group. That, of course, has absolutely nothing to do with the secretary of state's trip to Peru and Colombia. I will merely say, as you have probably read from the commentary both by the defense minister of Venezuela and the United States ambassador in Venezuela, that we have held conversations on this. Conversations will continue. It is our determination from the U.S. side to find a solution to this issue that is mutually satisfactory. And I'll have to leave that there.

Q Mr. Brownfield, Sergio Gomez (ph) from El Tiempo of Colombia. Going back to the question of the colleague from BBC, President Pastrana was quoted saying yesterday that he thought that the strategy behind the war on drugs wasn't giving as good results, and in fact he wanted to propose a big world conference to I think what's been done in the war against drugs because he thinks that there's not -- it's not being effective. But you are telling us that Plan Colombia, which is part of the U.S. strategy towards that objective, it's been effective. So, I'll hope you can comment on that.

MR. BROWNFIELD: Sure. Because I would never ever want to disagree with President Pastrana on any issue. President Pastrana did in fact make a larger global comment in which he said in his judgment that the efforts by the entire international community to resolve the world's drug problems, at least to date, had not been successful. That's a matter of common sense, I would suggest. One can walk on the streets of Washington or London or Paris or Bogota or Buenos Aires or Moscow -- I could name several hundred others, but I will stop now to give you all a rest, and see evidence that the effort by civilized society to address and resolve the drug issue is not yet completely successful.

President Pastrana has suggested a summit or a conference to address that issue. The idea of better cooperation and better coordination is a very good idea. We very much hope that our government, the government of Colombia and perhaps the other governments who are directly impacted by the drug scourge will in fact find a way to come together and test and assess how they can better cooperate and coordinate. I think this is an issue that's worth more discussion among several governments, my own included.

MODERATOR: Before we take this question over here, let me just ask, is there anyone who will be wanting to make a question in Spanish? OK, then we'll just continue in English.

Q (Off mike) -- in the middle of the big debate about former President Fujimori. It was said that the government of Mr. Toledo is going to ask Mr. Powell some kind of help for having Mr. Fujimori extradited from Japan. Does the U.S. have any kind of position about that issue?

MR. BROWNFIELD: I'm not going to speculate, because of course neither you nor I know exactly what will be discussed by President

Toledo and Secretary Powell. So, I will defer any speculation as to what a hypothetical response to a hypothetical question might be. I will, however, comment briefly in terms of what the United States government has done over the last eight or nine months to help, to assist the government of Peru, both the previous government of President Paniagua and the current government of President Toledo to produce an accounting that permits them to continue down their road of democratic transition. We have been asked several times by both the past and the current government of Peru for assistance either of a law enforcement nature or a judicial nature in terms of investigating certain leads, seek information on certain bank accounts and other financial transactions. In at least two cases, detaining suspects or individuals in the United States. In each case, the United States government did what it could within the limits of United States law, and the agreements currently in effect between the government of Peru and the government of the United States. And if I could take this opportunity to remind everyone here, it was in fact cooperation of that nature, directly between the government of Peru and the government of the United States, and more specifically, if I could say something very positive about a sister agency, with the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the United States, that did in fact lead to the eventual detention and then expulsion of the previous senior adviser to the Peruvian government, Mr. Vladimiro Montesinos, who is currently in Peru, as I understand it, awaiting trial.

MODERATOR: One or two final questions.

Q Javier with El Espectador again. I was wondering if Secretary Powell will make any announcement on the start of the -- (inaudible) -- program in Peru or Colombia?

MR. BROWNFIELD: That matter remains where it was when we last offered a public comment on it. However, being a generous fellow, I will repeat what we said at that time. As you know, because we released it to the public, an interagency mission led by Assistant Secretary of State for international Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, Rand Beers, conducted an investigation into the facts of what happened in April of this year that led to the tragic downing of an innocent civilian aircraft and flight in Peru. That investigation was conducted. A report was completed, and it has been transmitted to the senior levels of the United States government. Assistant Secretary Beers did, I believe, a very thorough briefing on the investigation and the report a little over a month ago.

A second stage in that process was then launched, and that was a taking the results of the review as a starting point to assess the question of whether this sort of assistance should be resumed. If so, what changes should or should not be made, under what circumstances should it be resumed. We are in that process now. And until that process is completed, I doubt that anyone in the United States government will have anything further or new to announce.

MODERATOR: Is there a final question?

I think we're just about out of time. I'll take this one, and then we'll close.

Q Ken Zugenheim (sp) from AP. Make it a question and a half. The quick easy one is about whether General Powell is going to be meeting with members of -- potential presidential candidates in Colombia. The more difficult question is, following up on Nestor's, you were mentioning about U.S. cooperation that helped lead to the arrest of Montesinos, but you're really dealing with a different situation with Fujimori, a much more sensitive political situation. I guess, to try to follow up on what he was saying, would the U.S. offer that same type of cooperation that it gave in the Montesinos case to help Peru secure the extradition of Fujimori?

MR. BROWNFIELD: Let me take the first one first, shall I? Will the secretary of State meet with Colombian presidential candidates while he is in Bogota? While there will be no direct and formal bilateral meetings, for a variety of reasons: one, time; two, perhaps the appropriateness of a senior foreign government official having that sort of discussion at the start of a political campaign; and third, difficulties in terms of balance. Obviously, to be absolutely fair, under these circumstances, one would have to meet with every presidential candidate.

However, I think it is likely that in some sort of social event organized by the government of Colombia, the secretary will have exposure to and possible contact with most of the presidential candidates, and they in turn will have that same sort of exposure and contact to and with him.

Your second question: there is an obvious difference between the matter of former President Fujimori and Mr. Montesinos at this point. And the obvious difference that first comes to my mind, I suppose, is that there is no question as to the whereabouts of former President Fujimori. There was considerable question as to the whereabouts of Mr. Montesinos. So the nature of the assistance that is being requested is different.

Second, just as we, the United States government, respect the sovereign authority and the sovereign right of the government of Colombia to make its decisions on its peace process, or the government of Peru to make decisions on its legal and judicial process, by the same token, I think it is safe to say that we will respect the sovereign authority of any other nation to apply and enforce its own constitutional and legal codes and norms. Now, at the end of the day, a specific question will be dealt with precisely in terms of the question or the nature of what is asked of us. And, at this stage, since we have nothing concrete to respond to beyond those generalities, I'm afraid that's probably where I'd have to leave that for now.

MODERATOR: With that, thank you all very much for coming.

MR. BROWNFIELD: And thank you for your patience.