Clinton Defends Rights Waiver in Colombian Drug War August 28, 2000
News Summary
Despite criticism from a number of Democratic lawmakers, President Clinton defended his waiver of human-rights conditions in order to release aid to help Colombia in its war on drugs, Reuters reported Aug. 24.Some Democratic politicians wanted Clinton to use the aid package as a means of pressuring Colombia to improve its human-rights record. But Clinton said the $1.3 billion in aid, which the U.S. Congress approved with an attached list of human rights conditions, was urgently needed in Colombia.
"I did it because I believe President Andres Pastrana is committed to dealing with the human-rights issues about which we're still very concerned," said Clinton. "He has submitted legislation to the Colombian parliament, for example, for civil trials, for allegations of military abuses of human rights. And we also have a system in place for specific case-by-case investigation of serious allegations."
A waiver option included in the legislation allowed Clinton to defer the conditions on the basis of his finding that it was in the United States' national-security interest.
Among those criticizing Clinton's waiver decision was Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.). "There is no need or justification for waiving the conditions," Leahy said. "These conditions are nothing more than what the Colombian government and our administration said they would do and this is not too much to ask, considering the risks and the amount of money involved."
Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) added that the waiver of the human-rights conditions undermine the importance of human rights as a fundamental principle of U.S. foreign policy.
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