WEDNESDAY, FEB. 13, 2002
WORLD NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN - 7A
U.S. to triple anti-drug aid to Peru
The Associated Press
LIMA, Peru — The United States will triple anti-drug funding to Peru and hopes to announce the resumption of drug surveillance flights when President Bush visits next month, the U.S. ambassador said yesterday.
Ambassador John Hamilton told reporters that U.S. aid meant to curb drug production and trafficking would increase to more than $150 million in 2002, from about $50 million annually in previous years.
More than $80 million will finance alternative development programs that help Peru's farmers switch from coca, the raw material of cocaine, to other crops including coffee and cacao.
The rest of the aid will support interdiction, drug crop eradication and efforts to reduce demand, including $30 million to "reinforce the fleet of helicopters that are used in the anti-drug fight," he said.
Peru is the world's second largest producer of coca leaf and of coca paste, which is often sent to Colombia for refinement into cocaine. Peruvian gangs have also begun refining cocaine for shipment to the United States via Mexico.
Hamilton said the United States hoped to announce a date for the resumption of drug surveillance flights during Bush's scheduled visit on March 23.
The flights were suspended last April after Peruvian air force jet, working in coordination with a CIA drug surveillance plane, shot down a missionary flight, killing an American woman and her 7-month-old daughter.
The CIA surveillance craft's crew members had identified the missionaries as a suspicious flight, but later realized they were not drug smugglers. They were unable to dissuade the Peruvians from opening fire.
A senior U.S. official said in Washington Monday that the plan to resume the flights
includes new safeguards such as increased training and mandatory Spanish language capability for U.S. pilots and crews. The plan still needs final approval from administration officials.
Hamilton denied speculation in Peruvian media that the increased aid and Bush's visit are meant to draw Peru into the civil war in neighboring Colombia, where guerrillas and paramilitaries make money from the drug trade. The United States is providing Colombia with $1.3 billion to fight drugs under a program called Plan Colombia.
"To say that we're going to involve Peru in Plan Colombia or in the Colombian conflict, that is going too far," Hamilton told Radio-progamas radio station yesterday. "There is no hidden agenda."
U. S. officials have said Bush would discuss trade and combating drug trafficking and terrorism during his visit with Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo.
Pearl reported alive following militant's arrest in Pakistan
The Associated Press
KARACHI, Pakistan — Police arrested a British-born Islamic militant yesterday they say masterminded the kidnapping of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl—the biggest break yet in the quest to free Pearl. An official close to the investigation said the suspect told police that Pearl is alive.
Ahmad Omar Saeed Sheikh, 27, was arrested yesterday afternoon in the eastern city of Lahore, according to Tasneem Noorani, a senior official of Pakistan's Interior Ministry. Saeed was expected to be transferred to Karachi for further questioning.
Following the arrest, police fanned out across this city of 14 million people, raiding homes of suspected Islamic extremists and searching settlements along the bleak and thinly populated Pakistani coast. Police cautioned that rescuing Pearl could still take time.
Saeed's capture followed an intensive, nationwide manhunt and was announced ahead of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's meeting today with President Bush in Washington. Musharraf is expected to seek U.S. economic and political support to help combat Muslim extremism in this predominantly Islamic country of 147 million people.
The Pearl kidnapping has been an embarrassment for Musharraf,
who's been trying to dispel Pakistan's image as a hotbed of Islamic fundamentalism. Saeed's arrest is a boost for the Pakistani leader as he meets Bush.
Pearl, 38, the Journal's South Asia bureau chief, disappeared Jan. 25 on his way to meet with contacts. He was believed working on a story about links between Pakistani militants and Richard C. Reid, the man accused of trying to detonate explosives hidden in his sneakers on a Paris-to-Miami flight in December.
Jamil Yousuf, head of a citizen-police liaison committee involved in the investigation, said the bearded, bespectacled Saeed told police that threats to kill Pearl were not carried out. "He's alive. He's OK," Yousuf quoted Saeed as saving of Pearl.
Yousuf said the key break came Monday night with the arrest of a suspect in the capital of Islamabad who gave crucial information. Yousuf did not elaborate.
Several more arrests were reported in Karachi, Rawalpindi and other major cities yesterday.
In Washington, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said he could not confirm any details about Saeed's arrest or Pearl's reported condition. However, he said that cooperation by Pakistani authorities "has been very strong and very helpful" in the Pearl case.
South Africa wants more AIDS research
The Associated Press
CAPETOWN, South Africa The health minister maintained yesterday that South Africa needs more research on internationally accepted drugs to combat AIDS before distributing them in public hospitals, defying mounting pressure to make the drugs more widely available.
Several prominent doctors organizations have joined AIDS activists, church groups and trade unions in urging the South African government to begin distributing the drug nevirapine in state hospitals countrywide, saying its refusal was unethical and illogical.
Nevirapine is approved by the World Health Organization, and studies show it can reduce mother-to-child transmission of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, by as much as 50 percent.
A study last year by the Medical Research Council found that up to 7 million South Africans could die of AIDS by 2010 unless efforts are stepped up to counter the epidemic. Last year, the government estimated 4.7 million South Africans are HIV-positive — one in nine people.
Speculation has been rife in the local media for several weeks that the government was set to change its policy and extend distribution of nevirapine beyond 18 pilot sites.
President Thabo Mbeki had hinted in a state-of-the-nation address Friday that the number of distribution sites may be increased, and pledged to step up the fight against the epidemic.
But yesterday, Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said research from the pilot sites still had to be evaluated.
"When you do research, the findings of that research must inform policy," she said. "You don't put the cart before the horse."
The government had committed itself to studying children who had been given nevirapine at pilot sites until they were 1 year old. The oldest child is now 8 months old.
"If one has to analyze policy now, it means we really have not done what we set out to do." the health minister said.
Last year, AIDS activists won a lawsuit compelling the government to begin distributing nevirapine.
The Cape High Court rejected the government's argument that infrastructure and counseling programs were inadequate for the drug to be effectively administered. The government has appealed the ruling.
Data collected at the research sites reinforced the government's concerns, Tshabala-Msimang said.
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