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DATE=8/24/2000 TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT TITLE=CLINTON-COLOMBIA (L-ONLY) NUMBER=2-265832 BYLINE=DAVID GOLLUST DATELINE=WHITE HOUSE CONTENT= INTRO: The Clinton administration is insisting its plan for stepped-up security assistance to Colombia is aimed at strengthening President Andres Pastrana's anti-drug campaign and not to fight leftwing insurgents there. President Clinton waived human rights conditions this week to speed the delivery of U-S aid. VOA's David Gollust reports from the White House. TEXT: The one-point-three billion dollar aid package - including the provision of U-S helicopters and military trainers -- was approved by Congress last month despite concern by some members of both parties that it will drag the United States into Colombia's long-running civil war. Briefing reporters on President Clinton's visit to Colombia next week, White House National Security Adviser Sandy Berger rejected the notion the United States is heading for a Vietnam-style U-S involvement in Colombia: /// BERGER ACTUALITY /// You should learn from what happened before. But the fact is this is nothing similar what-so- ever. We're talking about a few hundred American people going to train some Colombian army battalions - vetting them for human rights, training them in human rights as well - who will have a greater capability to provide security for the Colombian national police when they go in to try to destroy crops. That is the parameters of our undertaking. /// END ACT /// A principle aim of the U-S policy is helping Colombian security forces re-assert control over the coca- growing areas of the southern part of the country where both drug traffickers and leftwing insurgents operate freely. Mr. Berger said it is hard to imagine democracy surviving in Colombia over the long-term unless the grip of the drug kingpins is reversed and the insurgency ends. But he made clear the United States wants to see a negotiated solution to the civil conflict: /// BERGER ACT TWO /// We don't think there is a military solution to the guerrilla war in Colombia. Nor does President Pastrana. That is why he has embarked upon such a vigorous peace initiative. He has taken risks in doing that. There is a deeper level of dialogue and engagement than there has been before. It's going to be a long process. This has been a 40-year insurgency. But we don't see there being a military solution. /// END ACT /// President Clinton late Tuesday invoked national security considerations to waive human rights conditions set by Congress for the aid package though Mr. Berger insisted President Pastrana is committed to human rights reform in the military and will fulfill the U-S terms over time. Mr. Clinton's one-day trip to Colombia next Wednesday will be the first visit by a U-S President in a decade and it is intended as a visible show of support for Mr. Pastrana and "Plan Colombia" - his more than seven billion dollar national renewal program. (Signed) NEB/DAG/TVM/PT 24-Aug-2000 17:24 PM EDT (24-Aug-2000 2124 UTC) NNNN Source: Voice of America .