THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
(Cartagena, Colombia)
________________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release
August 30, 2000
PRESS CONFERENCE BY PRESIDENT CLINTON,
PRESIDENT PASTRANA OF COLOMBIA,
HOUSE SPEAKER DENNIS HASTERT,
AND SENATOR JOSEPH BIDEN
Casa de Huespedes
Cartagena, Colombia
3:05 P.M. (L)
PRESIDENT PASTRANA: Good
afternoon. On behalf of all Colombians,
it is my great privilege to welcome to Cartagena, President
Clinton, who
has been Colombia's steadfast friend, and honors us
enormously with his
visit today. I would also like to welcome the
distinguished members of
his delegation, starting with the Republican Party, the
Speaker of the
House of Representatives, a very good friend of Colombia,
Dennis
Hastert; and from the Democratic Party, another great
friend of ours,
Senator Joseph Biden.
You, Speaker Hastert, are not
foreign to Colombia, given that you
have defended our democracy for many years now and have
guided the
assistance package through the House. Colombia is
truly fortunate to
have you as a friend, sir.
Senator Biden, we're also very
pleased to have you once again here
in Cartagena. Your understanding of the very complex
issues of Plan
Colombia, from human rights to alternative development,
have been
crucial.
Senator Bob Graham and Mike DeWine
are also with us today, two
individuals who have led the way in the U.S.-Colombian
relations,
providing leadership in both trade and counternarcotics.
They are with
their colleague, Senator Lincoln Chafee, who is visiting
Colombia for
the first time. Gentlemen, we are very honored with
your presence.
However, there is a notable
absence that hurts our hearts of
another friend of Colombia -- Paul Coverdell. His
passing last month
was a deeply-felt loss, and I cannot imagine how we would
have gotten
this far without him. We miss him, but what he did so
bravely will
allow us to pursue.
I would also like to welcome our
good friends from the House of
Representatives, Congressman Douglas Bereuter, William
Delahunt, Sam
Farr, Porter Goss, Ruben Hinojosa, and Jim Moran.
Each in your own way
have worked for popular changes for our country.
I'd also like to welcome the
members of the President's Cabinet --
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Attorney General
Janet Reno --
leaders of the highest order who have visited us here
before. You have
taken the cause of burden-sharing in the war on illegal
drugs across the
globe.
The same is true for General
McCaffrey, who has worked tirelessly
through very many complicated details of our bilateral
strategy. And
we're also proud to have with us Sandy Berger, National
Security
Advisor, and John Podesta, the White House Chief of Staff.
Two years ago, I traveled to
Washington with the high hopes of
forming a new partnership with the United States.
Today, I can affirm
that we have accomplished that goal -- beyond our
expectations. Today
there exists between our two countries a much closer
commitment than at
any other time in our common history.
The United States government and
Congress have offered significant
assistance to Plan Colombia, which is my government
strategy for
national recovery. This package has been developed by
Colombians, has
been planned by Colombians, has been presented to the rest
of the world
by Colombians, and is being implemented -- or will be
implemented by
Colombia.
The very important resources
support many of the central elements
of the plan, including support of political negotiation,
alternative
developments for subsistent farmers, the battle against
drugs, the
strengthening of justice, humanitarian assistance and the
protection of
human rights. The U.S. assistance is a recognition
that the menace of
illegal drugs is truly international and, therefore,
requires a
concerted global response.
We Colombians must address the
many challenges our nation faces at
this moment in history. We know that the solutions
must be our own.
Equally important is the understanding that Colombia's
armed conflict
must be solved by political means. We have asked the
United States and
the international community to provide us with new tools
and additional
resources to build the Colombia of the 21st century.
We are grateful
for the assistance you have provided.
Many times over the past decades,
Colombians have felt alone in
bearing the burden of the international drug war.
Undoubtedly, this is
an international presence, and your presence here today,
Mr. President,
as a representative of the American people, is a commitment
that leads
us to know that we're no longer isolated in this struggle.
I'm also pleased we have had the
opportunity today to discuss our
bilateral economic agenda. Peace in Colombia is tied
to prosperity, to
economic growth and new opportunities for all our people,
and this
includes expanding bilateral trade.
I believe the time has come to
move towards an agreement that
allows better access for Colombian's products into the U.S.
markets. I
am convinced that at the end of the day, trade and
investment will do
more for Colombia and will be more decisive instruments in
the battle
against drugs, given that they will have a sustainable
impact for future
generations, and will contribute to a more prosperous
Colombia.
Today is indeed an historic
occasion. It marks a decisive moment
in a time when two nations join forces to attain common
objectives. I
have no doubt, ladies and gentlemen, that we have the right
policies and
that we will be implementing them in the right way and with
the right
partners.
Finally, I'd like to say that
Colombia is most fortunate to have
friends as President Clinton, who has earned admiration
around the world
for his commitment to peace in Northern Ireland, in the
Middle East,
Africa, and today here in Colombia. His legacy as one
of his
generation's most dedicated peacemakers is assured.
And now it is my privilege to
invite the President of the United
States to take over the microphone and the podium.
Sir, you are acknowledged.
(Applause.)
PRESIDENT CLINTON: First, I
want to thank President Pastrana,
members of his government and legislative leaders who have
welcomed us
so warmly here today. I'd also like to thank the
members of the
Colombian media who are responsible for the opportunity I
had last night
to address the people of Colombia about the commitment of
the United
States for the success of your democracy.
I'm pleased to be here with all
the people the President mentioned
-- Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert; Senator Joe Biden;
other
members of Congress and the Cabinet and the White House.
And I want to
thank you, Mr. President, for your reference to
Senator Coverdell, who
was a friend of Colombia and a friend of our common
efforts.
Together we come here to say that
the United States, executive and
Congress, Republican and Democrat, House and Senate, stand
with Colombia
in its fight for democracy.
In our meetings I had a chance to
thank President Pastrana for his
truly courageous leadership, for a peaceful, prosperous,
democratic
country free of narco-trafficking. He has pursued
this vision
fearlessly, as has so many others. The 11 widows of
those who gave
their lives for the rule of law and human rights and a
better future
that we met earlier today are the most eloquent testimony
of it.
The United States has a strong
interest in Colombia -- in your
economic recovery of the country, in the conservation of
your democracy,
in the protection of human rights for the people of
Colombia, and in
your pursuit of peace, security, stability, not only for
Colombia, but
for the whole region, and, undoubtedly, in reducing the
international
drug trade.
Meeting those objectives for us is
what Plan Colombia is all about.
It takes aim at all the interwoven challenges facing
Colombia both in
the economy and in the civil conflict, fighting drugs,
defending human
rights and deepening democracy. And as President
Pastrana said, it is
Plan Colombia -- a plan made by the leaders of Colombia for
the people
and future of Colombia.
Our support of that plan includes
a tenfold increase for social and
economic development to help farmers grow legal crops, to
train security
forces to protect human rights, to help more Colombians
find justice by
extending access to the courts. This afternoon, I
will visit a new Casa
de Justicia here in Cartagena that does just that.
We've also made
clear our confidence in President Pastrana's economic
approach, and
we're working closely with the international financial
institutions to
encourage their support of the Colombian economy.
Our assistance also makes a
substantial investment in Colombia's
counter-drug efforts. Drug trafficking breeds
violence, breeds
corruption, and drives away the jobs that could help to
heal this
country's divisions. It also supplies most of the
cocaine and much of
the heroin to the United States. Our assistance will
enhance the
ability of Colombian security forces to eradicate illegal
crops, destroy
drug labs, stop drug shipments before they leave Colombia.
Let me make one point very clear:
This assistance is for fighting
drugs, not waging war. The civil conflict and the
drug trade go
hand-in-hand to cause great misery for the people of
Colombia -- 2,500
kidnappings in the last year alone; over the last 10 years
35,000
Colombian citizens have lost their lives; 1 million have
been made
homeless. Our program is anti-drugs and pro-peace.
Forty years of fighting has
brought neither side closer to military
victory. The President himself has said that over and
over.
Counter-drug battalions will not change that, and that is
not their
purpose. Their purpose is to reduce the drug trade
that aggravates
every problem Colombia faces, and exports chaos to the
world, including
the United States.
I reject the idea that we must
choose between supporting peace or
fighting drugs. We can do both; indeed, to succeed,
we must do both. I
reaffirmed to the President our support for the peace
process. The
people of Colombia have suffered long enough, especially in
the area of
human rights. No good cause has ever been advanced by
killing or
kidnapping civilians, or by colluding with those who do.
Insurgents and
paramilitaries alike must end all human rights abuses, as
must the
security forces themselves.
The President is doing his part to
hold the military accountable,
and today we discussed his efforts to accelerate efforts to
investigate,
prosecute and punish all offenders, whoever they may be.
What happens in Colombia will
affect its citizens and this entire
region for a very long time to come. There is a lot
riding on this
President and this Plan Colombia. We are proud to
stand with our friend
and our neighbor as it fights for peace, freedom and
democracy, for
prosperity, human rights and justice, and for a drug-free
future. All
these things should be the right of all Colombians.
Thank you. (Applause.)
SPEAKER HASTERT: Thank you,
Mr. President, and thank you,
President Pastrana. The people of the United States
and the people of
Colombia have a great deal in common. There's the
distance of an ocean,
but there is a tradition of democracy -- here, the
oldest democracy in
the Southern Hemisphere, and in the north, a democracy who
has strived
for over 200 years to ensure that people have human rights,
that they
can determine their future, that they can work to better
themselves in
an economic way.
So why are we here today?
Not only do we share a great heritage of
democracy, but we also share a great burden. In our
nation, over 14,000
young people, children, lose their life every year to
either drug use or
drug violence. And it happens in our wealthiest
communities and on the
street corners of our most devastated inner cities.
In this country, thousands of
people lose their ability to make a
living, to farm their land, to dream the dreams that they
want for their
children and their grandchildren, because narco-traffickers
have changed
in many ways the promise of democracy.
We think that there's time for a
great partnership between the
United States, and Mr. President, your country, this
wonderful democracy
called Colombia. We hope that in the next few years
we can work
together, because we know it is our responsibility to cut
the demand for
drugs. And we know that there is a possibility, if we
work together,
that we can find those people who need to depend and make
their living
on growing coca or poppy today, can find a better way of
making a living
and pass a better future on to their children.
So we have passed in the Congress
the Plan Colombia. The President
has taken -- President Clinton has taken the necessary
steps so that we
can release monies and we can get this plan working today.
But as any
great task, as any huge job that is before two peoples, we
have just
begun.
We have to work in our country to
make sure that we can reduce the
demand for drugs, that we can work with your countrymen to
make sure
that you have the resources to fight the battle against
drug traffickers
here in Colombia. And there are those in this
country, and there are
those in the United States, that would be very happy to see
us fail.
But for the sake of our children and our grandchildren, we
can't afford
to let this fail. Our work has begun. We make a
commitment for a long
period of time that we will work together to find success.
I want to congratulate the people
of Colombia, because you're a
brave people. I've visited your hospitals for your
policemen and some
of your army people several years ago in Bogota. We
visited widows
today who are raising children without fathers because of
the tragedies
that have happened in this country. And we know of
the victims who are
taken hostage and threatened, and have changed their lives.
We can make
a better life for the people of Colombia and the people of
the United
States.
And, Mr. President, I look forward
to this partnership and working
together, and winning this contest. Thank you very
much. Gracias.
(Applause.)
SENATOR BIDEN: Mr.
President, it's good to be back. I visited
here and was exposed to the hospitality of you and your
family earlier
in the year. I came, like other Americans have come
in the Congress, to
determine whether or not, for myself, your Plan Colombia
was feasible
and, quite frankly, whether or not I would, in my case,
recommend to my
colleagues in the Senate that it was a worthwhile
investment for us to
play the part -- and we're only playing a part -- in Plan
Colombia.
But, Mrs. Pastrana, I didn't plan
on bringing all these people back
when I came again. So I apologize -- a big lunch.
(Laughter.) But
when I was here last, I was able to swim in that beautiful
pool and no
one paid attention. And you're all welcome to stay
for the weekend if
you'd like. (Laughter.)
The Speaker indicated an aspect of
this we don't often speak to.
Much more is at stake in your fight here in Colombia than
merely whether
or not narco-traffickers win or lose. I like to think
of it, I say to
my friends in the States, this way: Can you imagine
the hemisphere at
peace if Colombia is no longer a democracy? Can you
imagine that
circumstance? Can you imagine there being a healthy
hemisphere without
there being a healthy Colombia? I cannot imagine
that.
So from a purely foreign policy
standpoint, whatever the cause of
the dilemma, I can't fathom the United States not doing
everything
within its power to be a good partner for Colombia.
For Colombia's
interest is our interest. It's a hemispheric
interest, and it's in the
interest of the United States.
We also have the very, very
poignant and devastating problem of
drug use in my country, and the fact that this is the place
where the
vast majority of heroin and cocaine emanates. The bad
news and the good
news is -- the bad news is, it's almost all concentrated in
Colombia
now. When I first started working on this issue as a
young senator,
this was the processing and transiting forum. The
good news is, in a
strange way, it's all located here now, which gives us a
significant
opportunity with your Plan Colombia, as I've been educated
to it by both
you and General McCaffrey in the United States, to be able
to deal a
very crippling blow to the narco-traffickers.
The President said it, as he
always does, absolutely correctly --
Americans, United States citizens, are prepared to be
involved in the
war on drugs, they're not prepared to be involved in what
they believe
to be a civil disturbance unrelated to a war on drugs.
And that's a
very difficult line for you to parse. And much of
what will be judged
at home in the United States -- and again, we're only a
small part; this
is a $7 billion program, we're $1.3 billion here, so it's a
big part,
but we are not the plan, you are the plan -- but the
continued support
of the United States, rightly or wrongly, will be judged in
large part
by how much political consensus is sustained for
congressmen, senators
and future presidents to vote this kind of money.
And that will depend in great
part, Mr. President, as you know
better than anyone, on the perception as to whether or not
human rights
are being honored, whether you are as equally as dedicated
to moving on
the FARC as you are on the paramilitaries. So your
job is a very, very
difficult one. We're playing a part, along with
Colombia, Europe,
Japan, to restore the rule of law and to bolster this great
democracy.
Mr. President, I've been doing
this job a long time. I can't
remember many countries where I've been a small part of a
delegation
with the Attorney General, the Secretary of State, the
National Security
Adviser, the President of the United States, the Drug
Director and this
many congressmen and senators of both parties have shown
up. We
obviously care deeply and we wish very much for you to
succeed.
One last point that I will make.
If we make a mistake, those of us
who have been involved in drug policy issues in the United
States, if we
make a mistake, we may lose an election. All of you
sitting here
representing Colombia, if you make a mistake you may lose
your life.
This is high stakes for you, compared to what the stakes
that we play
for in the United States, those of us who make policy or
participate in
a small way in making policy. And so, do not
underestimate how much
your personal courage and the courage of your colleagues --
and your
families -- how much a part that has played in the
willingness of the
United States of America to get as deeply involved as we
are. It is a
big, big deal.
We want you to know and the
thousands of Colombians who do heroic
things every day to fight this trafficking, that we do
appreciate -- we
don't fully understand because we've never been subject to
it -- we do
appreciate not only the political commitment you're making,
but the
personal commitment.
And, Mrs. Pastrana, I say to you
and the next president and whoever
his or her spouse will be, it is an incredible sacrifice
you make. I
had the opportunity to spend time with your son, who, I
tell you what,
I'd take as my son. He's a hell of a kid. And I
watched as we went
into Cartagena, in a social gathering. I watched how
your husband
watched. I watched how he watched without trying to
be overbearing
about it.
Many of you have literally risked
everything in this fight. The
least we can do is to play our part. We're happy to
play our part. And
I want to thank our President, President Clinton, and the
Speaker of the
House, the third man in line to be President of the United
States, of
different political parties -- each of whom have had a
commitment to be
involved in this in a way that previous Presidents and
previous Speakers
have not. It would not have happened were it not for
them.
The journey now begins.
We're in it for the long haul, as long as
you are able to, as you've been in the past, demonstrate at
least to my
countrymen that human rights is very high on your agenda.
I thank you
and compliment you for your efforts. (Applause.)
PRESIDENT PASTRANA: Let us
begin with the round of questions.
Q President
Clinton, the Colombian government has been working
in order to obtain tariff benefits with the United States.
Mr.
President, with what do you commit yourself in order to
open the way so
that Colombia will benefit from benefits which are granted
to other
countries? And specifically, will the treaty that
benefits the
Colombian textile makers, will it be extended?
PRESIDENT CLINTON: Well, the
short answer is, I hope so. But if I
could, let me explain this issue not only to the Colombian
press, but to
the American press, because it hasn't received a lot of
attention.
We passed a very important bill
this year to increase our trade
with Africa because we thought we had not done enough.
And we have many
African Americans in the United States, as you do have
citizens of
African descent in Colombia, and all over the Eastern part
of South
America. In that bill, we also had legislation to
give more duty-free
access to goods from the Caribbean Basin, in the Caribbean.
We did it
because when we passed the NAFTA trade agreement back in
1993,
benefitting our trade with Mexico enormously, it had the
unintended
consequence of putting a big burden on the Caribbean
nations -- mostly
the little island nations. And it took us all this
time to correct it.
Now, we know that this legislation
could have severe unintended
consequences on Colombia, in ways that would undermine the
impact of
Plan Colombia. So Senator Graham, who is here on this
delegation, and
Senator DeWine, and perhaps others who are here, have
sponsored a bill
which would, for one year on the textile front, in effect,
treat the
Colombian textiles in the same way as those from the
Caribbean island
nations, and the Central American nations. And that
would prevent a
mass migration of jobs out of Colombia, and it would give
the next
President and the new Congress a full year to debate what
the next step
in the economic integration of our region should be.
So I will say, I will tell you the
exact same thing I told the
President and the government inside -- we are a couple of
months away
from an election. The Congress will not be in session
much longer. But
I think this should be done, the Speaker thinks it should
be done, and
we don't want the Congress to be in a position of having --
or the
administration, either -- of having come up with over $1
billion in aid
that is partly designed to restore the Colombian economy
and to move
people out of coca production into legitimate earnings, and
then turn
around and take the economic benefits away that were there
before we
started.
So it's a problem. There is
a narrow legislative fix, which
Senator Graham and others, Senator DeWine and others, have
proposed --
which, for the benefit of the American press, would not
increase textile
imports into our country over and above what they will be
anyway over
the next year, but would keep massive migration of jobs
from Colombia to
other places in the Caribbean region from occurring.
That's basically
what Senator Graham's trying to do.
So I just -- because it's so close
to the end of the session, I
wish I could promise you that this will happen. I
cannot promise you it
will happen. All I can tell you is, I will try, and I
hope we can do
it.
Q President
Clinton, 10 years ago President Bush visited here
with the same purpose as yours. And in the
intervening years, the flow
of drugs to the United States illegally has only increased.
What makes
you believe this new U.S. aid package, although it be part
of a broader
Colombian plan, can reverse that trend without drawing U.S.
troops into
a shooting war here?
PRESIDENT CLINTON: Well,
first of all, I think that there's a lot
of evidence that the flow of drugs out of Colombia per se
has increased,
as Senator Biden said, because efforts in Bolivia and Peru
and several
other places have been relatively successful. But the
overall problem
in the United States is abating.
Unfortunately, it's getting worse
in some other parts of the world.
And I give a lot of credit to General McCaffrey, to the
Attorney
General, to the Secretary of State and others. We
have worked very hard
on this. And I give a lot of credit to the Congress,
including the
majority party in Congress. There's been an enormous
effort over the
last five years to intensify our efforts to reduce demand
in the United
States and to more effectively deal with supply. So
that's the first
thing I would say. We have some evidence that we can
succeed.
The second thing I would say is, a
condition of this aid is that we
are not going to get into a shooting war. This is not
Vietnam; neither
is it Yankee imperialism. Those are the two false
charges that have
been hurled against Plan Colombia. You have a perfect
right to question
whether you think it will work or whether you think we've
properly
distributed the resources. But I can assure you -- a
lot of the
opposition to this plan is coming from people who are
afraid it will
work. So that won't happen.
The third thing you asked me -- I
believe this will work because I
think that this President and this government are willing
to take the
risks necessary to make it work. I think that they're
working on
developing military forces and police forces that both
respect human
rights and know they'll be held accountable for abuses, and
are honest
and competent enough to be effective in this battle if the
rest of us
will give them the resources, support and training to do it
-- on a
level that, at least in our experience -- you heard Senator
Biden, he's
been in the Senate a long time -- we have never seen this
before at this
level in Colombia.
And the fact that the President
understands, that he's willing to
do something -- and I hope the people of Colombia will
understand it and
be patient with him -- he's trying to do two things that no
one's ever
tried to do at once, but without it, I don't think either
problem can be
solved. He's trying to fight the narco-trafficking
and find a way to
have a diplomatic solution to the civil unrest that has
dogged Colombia
for 40 years. It is a massive undertaking.
Anyway, to summarize, I believe
this will work -- number one,
because we have some evidence that we can make a difference
in the last
five years; number two, because we have an enormously
courageous and I
think thoughtful President and plan and team here committed
to it; and
number three, there won't be American involvement in a
shooting war
because they don't want it and because we don't want it
because what we
have to do is to empower them, and then if there are
problems on their
borders, to empower their neighbors to solve this with our
support.
PRESIDENT PASTRANA: I think
that the situation today is totally
different from the situation 10 years ago, first of all,
because we have
an integral program to fight against drug trafficking.
This is
something we did not have before. And this issue was
approached only
from the police standpoint. But today, for the first
time, we are
investing in the people.
Plan Colombia, as we have
discussed with President Clinton, is not
a plan for war, it's a plan for peace. It's a social
plan.
Seventy-five percent of Plan Colombia will go to social
investment, to
capacity-building, alternative development. And this
is why, for the
first time, what we now see is a comprehensive policy so as
not to work
only from one side, but to see how in an integral way you
can better put
an end to the drug issue.
This is why, in addition to Plan
Colombia, we're now implementing
Impresa Colombia, which means that all the social resources
of the
Colombian states of $4 billion-$5 billion that were
contributing to Plan
Colombia we're going to allocate it to earmark these
resources. They'll
be going to the poorest regions and we'll be investing in
infrastructure, alternative development, agricultural
policies, social
investment -- particularly in those areas which are now
being affected
by violence and civil unrest.
Only a year ago, in Colombia --
because with the assistance of
Speaker Hastert and other Democrat and Republican senators,
the U.S. had
given us $230 million for military equipment. And
last year we had the
largest U.S. investment in Colombia. Last year
it was $230 million
invested in helicopters, and these went to the police.
And today, a
large amount will be invested only in the social area.
So this means
that $250 million will be invested in the people, in our
social
development and the promotion and strengthening of human
rights and
alternative development.
And this is why I would like to
highlight that for the first time
the United States is investing not only -- because it's not
only
military assistance -- and I want to be very clear -- the
U.S.
assistance is an assistance to fight against drug
trafficking, and for
this reason I say today that we Colombians must feel very
pleased to see
that this large amount -- over $250 million --will be
invested in the
marginal areas, in the poorest areas in Colombia.
PRESIDENT CLINTON: Could I
just follow up and just make one other
point on this -- again, just because I think it's important
that what we
do be clearly understood. We have received some
criticism in the United
States from people who say, well, a majority of the money
we're giving
is for military or law enforcement purposes. Even
though the money we
give, about $300 million, for boosting government capacity
and
alternative economic development is a tenfold increase over
what we were
giving before.
It is true that a majority of our
assistance is for increasing the
capacity of the Colombia people to fight the drug war.
But it is
important to recognize that that is true largely because we
have a
unique ability to give those tools to the Colombian forces.
And I want to reiterate what
President Pastrana said, because this
is what he said to me when he asked us to do this. He
said, I promise
you three-quarters of the total investment of the plan will
be for
non-military, non-law enforcement things -- to build
government
capacity, to develop the economic and social capacities of
the country.
And so, the American aid package
needs to be seen in the larger
context. And I want to thank -- the United Nations
has given money to
this, Spain has given money, Norway has given money, Japan
has given
money. The international financial institutions and
the government of
Colombia is going to contribute a majority of the $7.5
billion. And
anyone within the sound of my voice: We still need
another $1 billion
or $1.5 billion, and we would be glad to have some more
help.
(Laughter.) Thank you very much.
Q President
Clinton, is there a specific situation in which the
U.S. government might consider perhaps giving Colombia
military support
to fight the guerrillas?
PRESIDENT CLINTON: Our
involvement is laid out in the terms of
Plan Colombia. The President has developed this plan
with his team, and
it does not contemplate that. And so, the answer is,
no, that's not
authorized by what we did.
What we want to do is to increase
the capacity of the Colombian
government to fight the narco-traffickers, and in so doing,
to reduce
anyone else's income from illegal drug trade and increase
the leverage
that the President has to find a peaceful resolution of the
civil
conflict. And that is his policy, not my policy.
I'm supporting his
policy.
PRESIDENT PASTRANA: Once
again, in order to make it very clear,
while Andres Pastrana is the President of Colombia, we will
not have a
foreign military intervention in Colombia.
Q Mr. President,
several Democratic lawmakers and human rights
organizations have criticized you for waiving six
conditions, the
majority on human rights, in order to release the $1.3
billion for this
plan. How do you reconcile the waiver with your
policy of protecting
human rights around the world? And, President
Pastrana, how long will
it take you to meet those conditions, and are they
realistic?
PRESIDENT CLINTON: First of
all, let me say why I did the waiver,
and begin by saying I support strongly human rights and I
support the
human rights provisions of Plan Colombia -- or, if you
will, the human
rights requirements for disbursing the aid under Plan
Colombia. But
there is a reason Congress gave me waiver authority here.
Not because
they didn't care about human rights, but because they knew
that
President Pastrana was committed to human rights. He
was committed to
human rights before he was President of Colombia. He
was committed to
human rights before he thought of Plan Colombia and before
he ever asked
us to help. And I would remind you that he has been
the victim of
perhaps the most severe human rights abuse of all.
So the Congress gave me the waiver
authority because they knew
there was no way, between the time that they appropriated
the money and
we needed to spend it, that he could meet every criteria in
the
legislation, but that if I thought he was committed to
doing so and
acting in good faith, I could give a waiver so we wouldn't
wait another
year.
I don't think anyone seriously
believes that either the guerrillas
or the narco-traffickers will be more careful with human
rights than
this President. And so creating another year of
vacuum in which
innocent people can be crushed I think would be a terrible
mistake.
On the other hand, you heard what
Joe Biden said. If there is to
be continued support from the Congress and the next
President, then
Colombia must meet the requirements of the law. And
the President said
to me repeatedly that -- and he just said publicly that he
was. I think
I should let him address that.
PRESIDENT PASTRANA: As I
have told President Clinton and many of
my colleagues, journalists, the issue of human rights is
not imposed on
us by the U.S. government or by President Clinton. It
is the first
commitment of the Colombian government of President
Pastrana to fight
against the violation of human rights.
As of the moment when we proposed
Plan Colombia, as I've had the
opportunity of telling several of you, we knew that the
eyes of the
world would be focusing on our country, and particularly
regarding the
issue of human rights.
But we're also asking the rest of
the world to understand the
complexity of the problems that we have in our country.
And many times
it's difficult for people to understand that we have the
illegal defense
groups, or the guerrilla drug-trafficking, common
criminals. But,
likewise, I think that we have made a lot of headway.
We have greater
awareness on the part of the members of our military
forces. And we are
demanding the insurgents and the illegal defense groups to
better
understand that they have to cooperate in terms of not
violating human
rights. And hopefully, the first agreements to be
made in the
negotiation peace talks will be related with international
humanitarian
law and human rights, so as to exclude the civil population
and minor
combatants from this conflict. Hopefully we'll be
able to arrive at
this agreement.
And, in addition, we've done a lot
also on our part. We have
passed the new criminal code. And issues which are
very sensitive such
as forced disappearance, genocide, torture, will be dealt
with by civil
courts. And we have reformed the criminal and
military code. We
devoted a lot of years to this reform, but today it's a
fact. And
finally, the government itself, via the Minister of
Defense, has asked
for special powers by Congress so as to reform our military
forces, and
these powers will expire in the future weeks. And
this will allow us to
get rid of people who are with the military and that might
be linked to
any human rights violation issues. And it's going to
be very important,
because in the past our laws did not allow us to do this.
And we gave this as a signal to
the rest of the world. The Vice
President of Colombia is the person in charge of this issue
of human
rights. Never before in Colombia has the Vice
President and the Vice
President's office been in charge of this very important
topic in order
to promote all our policies regarding human rights.
And I think that many of the
proposals made by Congress in order to
give Colombia certification for the purposes of Plan
Colombia will be
achieved in the future weeks. And hopefully, with
these reforms that I
have mentioned, we'll make headway. But this is a
commitment of our
government, and we will support, of course, human rights.
PRESIDENT CLINTON: Because I
expect this is my last trip here
before the end of my term, there's one point I did not make
in my
opening statement that I should have on behalf of the
President and the
people of Colombia. I would like to make a personal
plea to the
neighbors of Colombia and the leaders of those neighboring
states --
with whom I have worked closely for years, most of them --
to be
strongly supportive of President Pastrana and Plan
Colombia.
There have been many reports that
others are reluctant in Latin
America to support this for fear that the Plan Colombia, as
it succeeds,
will cause the problem to spill over the borders into other
states.
Now, let's be candid: If it's successful, some of
that will happen.
But we have funds in Plan Colombia, in the American portion
of it, that
can be used, a substantial amount of money, to help other
countries deal
with these problems at the borders right when they start.
And I would ask the neighbors of
Colombia to consider the
alternative. If you really say Colombia can't attack
this in an
aggressive way because there will be some negative
consequences on our
border, the logical conclusion is that all the cancer of
narco-trafficking and lawless violence in this entire vast
continent
should rest on the shoulders and burden the children of
this one nation.
And that's just not right.
And so, I understand the
reluctance of the leaders of other
countries to embrace this. It's a frightening
prospect to take on this.
But this man, more than once, has risked his life to do it.
So I just
want to assure the other countries the United States will
not abandon
you. We actually have specific provisions in this
bill to provide
assistance to neighboring countries that suffer adversely
because of the
disruptions. But this is something that the
democratic leaders of this
continent should do together, arm in arm, hand in hand.
We will be as
supportive as we can, but in the end they'll have to do it
together in
order to succeed.
And again, Mr. President, I thank
you, and I want to thank the
leaders of our Congress from the bottom of my heart for
doing what I
think is a good thing for America to do. Thank you,
sir. (Applause.)
END 3:57 P.M. (L)