>Date: Sun, 14 May 2000 00:06:44 -0700 >From: Chris Brady <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >Please pay particular attention to the US Govt. representative's words >about the harmlessness of a certain herbicide: > >To Colombians, Drug War Is a Toxic Foe >By LARRY ROHTER >New York Times, May 1, 2000 > >RIOBLANCO DE SOTAR�, Colombia � The children and their teachers were in >the schoolyard, they say, playing soccer and basketball and waiting >for classes to begin when the crop-duster appeared. At first they >waved, but as the plane drew closer and a gray mist began to stream >from its wings, alarmed teachers rushed the pupils to their classrooms. > > Over the next two weeks, a fleet of counternarcotics planes taking >part in an American-sponsored program to eradicate heroin poppy >cultivation returned here repeatedly. Time and time again, residents >charge, the government planes also sprayed buildings and fields that >were not supposed to be targets, damaging residents' health and >crops. > > "The pilot was flying low, so there is no way he could not have seen >those children," said Nidia Maj�n, principal of the La Floresta rural >elementary school, whose 70 pupils were sprayed that Monday morning >last June. "We had no way to give them first aid, so I sent them home. >But they had to cross fields and streams that had also been >contaminated, so some of them got sick." > > In fact, say leaders of this remote Yanacona Indian village high in >the Andes, dozens of other residents also became ill during the >spraying campaign, complaining of nausea, dizziness, vomiting, rashes, >blurred vision and ear and stomach aches. They say the spraying also >damaged legitimate crops, undermining government efforts to support >residents who have abandoned poppy growing. > > Such incidents are not limited to this village of 5,000, say critics >in Colombia and the United States, but have occurred in numerous parts >of Colombia and are bound to increase if the fumigation program is >intensified, as the Clinton administration is proposing as part of a >$1.6 billion emergency aid package to Colombia. > > Critics say they frequently receive reports of mistakes and abuses by >the planes' Colombian pilots that both the American and Colombian >governments choose to ignore. > > State Department officials deny that indiscriminate spraying takes >place, with an American Embassy official in Bogot� describing the >residents' claims of illnesses as "scientifically impossible." > > But to local leaders here the situation brought on by the spraying >remains one of crisis. "The fumigation was done in an indiscriminate >and irresponsible manner, and it did not achieve its objective," said >Iv�n Alberto Chicangana, who was the mayor when the spraying occurred. > > "The damage done to the physical and economic well-being of this >community has been serious," he said, "and is going to be very >difficult for us to overcome." > > He and other local leaders say that people were sick for several weeks >after the spraying, and in interviews a few residents complained of >lasting symptoms. Three fish farms with more than 25,000 rainbow >trout were destroyed, residents said, and numerous farm animals, >mostly chickens and guinea pigs, died, while others, including some >cows and horses, fell ill. > > In addition, fields of beans, onions, garlic, potatoes, corn and other >traditional crops were sprayed, leaving plants to wither and die. As a >result, community leaders here say, crop-substitution projects >sponsored by the Colombian government have been irremediably damaged >and their participants left impoverished. > > The spraying around this particular village has since stopped, >residents say, though they fear that it could resume at any time, and >it continues in neighboring areas, like nearby Guachicono, and >year-round >elsewhere in Colombia. > > Peasants in the coca-growing region of Caquet�, southeast of here, >last year complained to a reporter that spray planes had devastated the >crops they had planted after abandoning coca, and similar reports >have emerged from Guaviare, another province to the east. > > Indeed, American-financed aerial spraying campaigns like the one here >have been the principal means by which the Colombian government has >sought to reduce coca- and opium-poppy cultivation for nearly a >decade. The Colombian government fleet has grown to include 65 >airplanes and helicopters, which fly every day, weather permitting, >from three bases. Last year, the spraying effort resulted in the >fumigation >of 104,000 acres of coca and 20,000 acres of opium poppy. > > Yet despite such efforts, which have been backed by more than $150 >million in American aid, cocaine and heroin production in Colombia has >more than doubled since 1995. > > In an effort to reverse that trend and weaken left-wing guerrilla and >right-wing paramilitary groups that are profiting from the drug trade >and threatening the country's stability, the Clinton administration >is now urging Congress to approve a new aid package, which calls for >increased spending on drug eradication as well as a gigantic increase >for crop-substitution programs, to $127 million from $5 million. > > Critics, like Elsa Nivia, director of the Colombian affiliate of the >advocacy organization Pesticide Action Network, see the eradication >effort as dangerous and misguided. "These pilots don't care if they >are fumigating over schools, houses, grazing areas, or sources of >water," she said in an interview at the group's headquarters in Cali. > > "Furthermore," she added, "spraying only exacerbates the drug problem >by destabilizing communities that are trying to get out of illicit >crops and grow legal alternatives." > > Those who have been directly affected by the spraying effort here also >argue that fumigation is counterproductive. In this cloud-shrouded >region of waterfalls, rushing rivers, dense forests and deep mountain >gorges, poppy cultivation was voluntarily reduced by half between 1997 >and 1999, to 250 acres, said Mr. Chicangana, the former mayor. > > He said it was well on its way to being eliminated altogether when the >spraying began. > > "We were collaborating, and now people feel betrayed by the state," he >lamented. > > "The fumigation disturbs us a bit," said Juan Hugo Torres, an official >of Plante, the Colombian government agency supervising >crop-substitution efforts, who works with farmers here. "You are >building trust >with people, they have hopes, and then the spraying does away with all >of that." > > In an interview in Washington, R. Rand Beers, the American assistant >secretary of state for international narcotics and law enforcement >affairs, said aerial spraying flights are strictly monitored and >targets chosen carefully. > > The fumigation program is designed so that pilots "shouldn't be >anywhere close to alternative development projects," he said, since >"officials in the air and on the ground should be equipped with >geographic >positioning devices that pinpoint where those activities are taking >place." > > "If that happened, the pilot who flew that mission should be >disciplined," Mr. Beers said in reference to the specific accusations >made by residents here. "That shouldn't be happening." > > But the area fumigated here is wind-swept mountain terrain where >illicit crops and their legal alternatives grow side by side, making >accurate spraying difficult. And in some other places, pilots may be >forced to fly higher than might be advisable, for fear of being shot >at by the guerrillas, whose war is fueled by the profits of the drug >trade. > > As for the complaints of illness, the American Embassy official who >supervises the spraying program said in an interview in Bogot� that >glyphosate, the active ingredient in the pesticide used here, is "less >toxic than table salt or aspirin." Calling it "the most studied >herbicide in the world," he said it was proven to be harmless to human >and animal life and called the villagers' account "scientifically >impossible." > > "Being sprayed on certainly does not make people sick," said the >official, "because it is not toxic to human beings." > > Glyphosate "does not translocate to water" and "leaves no soil >residue," he added, so "if they are saying otherwise, to be very honest >with you, they are lying, and we can prove that scientifically." > > But in an out-of-court settlement in New York state in 1996, Monsanto, >a leading manufacturer of glyphosate-based herbicides, though not >necessarily identical to those used here, agreed to withdraw claims >that the product is "safe, nontoxic, harmless or free from risk." The >company signed a statement agreeing that its "absolute claims that >Roundup 'will not wash or leach in the soil' is not accurate" because >glyphosate "may move through some types of soil under some conditions >after application." > > In the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency has approved >glyphosate for most commercial uses. But the E.P.A.'s own >recertification study published in 1993 noted that "in California, >where >physicians are required to report pesticide poisonings, glyphosate was >ranked third out of the 25 leading causes of illness or injury due to >pesticides" over a five-year period in the 1980's, primarily causing >eye and skin irritation. > > In addition, labels on glyphosate products like Roundup sold in the >United States advise users to "avoid direct application to any body of >water." Directions also warn users that they should "not apply this >product in a way that will contact workers or other persons, either >directly or through drift" and caution that "only protected handlers >may be in the area during application." > > The doctor in charge of the local clinic here, Iv�n Hern�ndez, >recently was transferred and could not be reached for comment about the >impact of the spraying on the health of residents. Gisela Moreno, a >nurse's aide, refused to speak to a visiting reporter, saying, "We >have been instructed not to talk to anyone about what happened here." >When asked the origin of the order, she replied: "From above, from >higher authorities." > > Here in Rioblanco de Sotar�, half a dozen local people say they felt >so sick after the spraying that they undertook a 55-mile bus trip to >San Jos� Hospital in Popay�n, the capital of Cauca Province, for >medical care. There, they were attended by Dr. Nelson Palechor Obando, >who said he treated them for the same battery of symptoms that more >than two dozen residents described to a reporter independently in >recent interviews. > > "They complained to me of dizziness, nausea and pain in the muscles >and joints of their limbs, and some also had skin rashes," he said. "We >do not have the scientific means here to prove they suffered >pesticide poisoning, but the symptoms they displayed were certainly >consistent with that condition." > > Because this is an area of desperate poverty where most people eke out >a living from subsistence agriculture, there is no stigma attached to >growing heroin poppies, and those who have planted the crop freely >admit it. Yet even those who claim never to have cultivated poppies say >that their fields were also sprayed and their crops destroyed. > > "They fumigated everywhere, with no effort made to distinguish between >potatoes and poppies," complained Osc�r Cer�n, a 32-year-old farmer. >"We could even hear their radio transmissions on the FM band, with >the ground command referring to us in a vulgar fashion." > > Other farmers said that the air currents constantly swirling down from >the 14,885-foot Sotar� volcano, on whose flank this town sits, blew the >herbicide over fields planted with legal crops. > > "A gust of wind can carry the poison off to adjacent fields, so that >they end up more badly damaged than the field that was the original >target, which sometimes is left completely intact," explained Fernando >Hormiga. > > In the United States, glyphosate users are specifically warned not to >spray by air "when winds are gusty or under any other condition that >favors drift." Usage instructions also say that "appropriate buffer >zones must be maintained" to avoid contaminating surrounding areas. > > Once word got out about the illnesses that followed the spraying here, >prices for milk, cheese and other products that are a mainstay of the >local economy dropped by more than half. "The rumors are that the >land is contaminated, so we no longer get orders from outside, and the >middlemen can now name their own price," said Fabi�n Om�n, a farmer and >town councilman. > > Worse still, government and private creditors are nonetheless >demanding that the loans made for crop-substitution projects like the >fish farms must still be repaid, even though the enterprises themselves >have been destroyed. > > Asked about the lack of an integrated policy that implies, Alba Luc�a >Otero, the Plante director for Cauca Province, expressed frustration. > > "The state is a single entity, but we work on one side while those >doing the fumigation work on another," she said. "There should be >coordination, but they take their decision at the central level, and we >are >not consulted." > > > Copyright 2000 The New York Times Company > > __________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki - Finland +358-40-7177941, fax +358-9-7591081 e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.kominf.pp.fi ___________________________________ [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe/unsubscribe messages mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ___________________________________
