U.N.-COLOMBIA: Defensive Samper Calls for War against Drug Trade

By Farhan Haq Reprint | | Print |

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 23 1996 (IPS) - The embattled president of Colombia, Ernesto Samper Pizano, took the offensive at the United Nations Monday by proposing a major global initiative to combat drug trafficking.

“In Colombia, we have been engaged in mortal combat against drug trafficking,” Samper declared. “Our values, our democratic government and our national security are threatened.” Now, he added, the world must come to Colombia’s aid by pursuing global anti-narcotics initiatives.

Speaking to the opening of the 51st annual session of the U.N. General Assembly, Samper asked all nations to participate in a global effort to eradicate illegal drug crops, offer economic alternatives to drug harvesting and place stricter controls on the banking system.

He proposed that the process start within the next three months with the formation of a group of experts to draw up a timetable and plan of action for an international war against drugs.

“Colombia wants to be part of the solution,” Samper told the 185-nation Assembly. “We do not want to be demonised by the world.”

Samper’s remarks reflected his defensiveness, not merely about Colombia’s position as a major source of the world’s cocaine, but about his own alleged links to Colombian cartels.

The Colombian president’s visit here has been overshadowed by charges by former campaign aides that Samper knew that the Cali drug cartel had contributed money to his 1994 campaign.

Largely because of those allegations, which have been denied by Samper, the United States earlier this year canceled his U.S. visa.

However, the Non-Aligned Movement, over which Colombia presides this year, insisted that he be permitted to come here to address the Assembly — a privilege traditionally granted world leaders.

Yet the spectre of drugs continued to loom over Samper’s visit this weekend, when drug-sniffing dogs uncovered some four kilogrammes of heroin aboard the plane on which Samper was to fly to New York. Acting on an anonymous tip, Colombian police seized the drugs before Samper’s flight.

Arguing that the charges of accepting campaign funds from cartels have been part of a set-up, Samper told the Assembly, “Barely 48 hours ago, I was the victim of another attempt. Heroin was smuggled onto my plane in an attempt to discredit the Colombian government.”

Despite Samper’s appeal for a new world-wide initiative against drug trafficking, other Latin American officials who addressed the General Assembly have barely mentioned the problem.

Luiz Felipe Lampreia, Brazil’s foreign minister, mentioned drugs in passing as one of many world problems the United Nations faces. But he chose to focus on the challenges of the global economy.

He worried that global economic policies have produced a world “which swells the ranks of the destitute and the outcast among and within countries — a world which breeds conflict and increases inequality.”

Lampreia was more upbeat about the Southern Cone Common Market (Mercosur), the growing customs union of the southern Latin American states of Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Brazil. He lauded Chile’s recent admission to the pact as an associate state and said he looked forward to Bolivia’s accession shortly.

Argentine Foreign Minister Guido di Tella also praised Mercosur’s growth, but warned that, before Bolivia can enter, it must strengthen its democratic institutions. “For Argentina, this should be a precondition for full membership of Mercosur,” di Tella said.

In general, the opening of this year’s Assembly was quiet, reflecting the concern of many nations that the United Nations — owed some 2.8 billion dollars in regular and peacekeeping funds — is in serious trouble.

“There is a widespread feeling of dissatisfaction, sometimes veiled and sometimes explicit, with an organisation which still embodies the loftiest ideals ever conceived by the human spirit,” Lampreia said. “We must rid the United Nations of its image as a morose and lethargic body incapable of rising to the challenges of our times.”

As in most Assembly plenaries, a host of world leaders have suggested new aims for the United Nations that reflect their own concerns — from Colombia’s anti-drug proposals to Georgia’s plea for action against violent separatist movements and Iran’s attack against U.S.-led “unilateralism.”

Irakli Menagarishvili, Georgia’s foreign minister, argued for firmer measures against such separatist causes as that of Georgia’s breakaway Abkhazia region, from which some 300,000 people have been expelled during a civil war.

“It is evident that international terrorism and aggressive separatism are interconnected, and consequently we need combined efforts to struggle against both of them,” he said.

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati also weighed in against terrorism, but blamed the United States for sponsoring terrorist activity. He noted the recent U.S. Congress decision to allocate money to overthrow the Iranian government, calling it “money for subversive and terrorist activities…recklessly legislated into law by the U.S. Congress.”