DATE= 04/30/02

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=POWELL-DRUG FLIGHTS (S)

NUMBER=2-289281

BYLINE=DAVID GOLLUST

DATELINE=STATE DEPARTMENT

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: Secretary of State Colin Powell says that when U-S-sponsored drug-interdiction flights resume over Peru and Colombia, those governments will have the ultimate say in whether aircraft believed to be involved in drug-running are shot down. The program was suspended a year ago after a Peruvian jet downed a plane carrying a U-S missionary family. V-O-A's David Gollust reports from the State Department.

TEXT: The new interdiction program, which is expected to resume within six months, will have elaborate safeguards to prevent a repeat of last year's tragedy including U-S personnel riding aboard surveillance planes to participate in critical decisions. But appearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee, Mr. Powell said the life-or-death decisions on whether a suspected drug plane will be shot down will rest with the militaries of the two South American countries:

///POWELL ACTUALITY///

We will help them. We will help identify, help make sure that we know what is being gone after. But the actual use of the lethal force, and the decision to use that lethal force, is a sovereign decision for the nation concerned.

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Under proposed reforms, the State Department will supervise the program rather than the C-I-A, and surveillance planes will be flown by Peruvian and Colombian pilots. The flights will not resume until details are negotiated with the two countries and President Bush gives the final go-ahead. (Signed)

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