Wednesday, 21 March 2001

         ********************
         * CANADIAN SOURCES *
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1. TORONTO STAR [Canada] -- Tuesday, 20 March 2001
    Canadian helicopters used in Colombia's 'dirty war'

2. OTTAWA CITIZEN [Canada] -- Wednesday, 21 March 2001
    Export law allows sale of arms to Colombia:
    Human rights groups call on government to change legislation

3. EDMONTON SUN [Canada] -- Wednesday, 21 March 2001
    Helicopter sales come under fire
    By David Gamble

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TORONTO STAR [ Canada]

Tuesday, 20 March 2001

                 Canadian helicopters used
                 in Colombia's 'dirty war'
                 -------------------------

OTTAWA, Canada -- A batch of surplus Canadian Forces helicopters, sold to
the United States, ended up with the Colombian military, which has been
accused of massacres and human rights abuses, critics said Tuesday.

Opposition critics and Amnesty International called on the federal
government to set up rules about the end use of military equipment sold to
the United States - as it has with other countries.

Thirty-three of 40 Twin Huey choppers sold to the U.S. State Department
from 1998 to 2000 were eventually refurbished and shipped to South America
as part of Plan Colombia, Amnesty said.

Plan Colombia is an American-sponsored program aimed at quelling the
country's rebellion and eliminating the cocaine trade.

''I believe that Canadians would be appalled to know that our government
has been complicit in sending helicopters that ultimately are a part of
the military component of Plan Colombia,'' said MP Svend Robinson of the
NDP.

The government must have been willfully blind not to know that the
choppers would be passed on to Colombia, he said.

Keith Rimstad of Amnesty International said the transfer exposes a
loophole in Canada's export laws. He and Robinson called on the government
to bring in rules limiting the end use of military equipment sold to the
U.S.  David Kilgour, secretary of state for Latin America, didn't respond
to the calls for an end-use agreement. Rather, he said the government has
never given permission for exports of helicopters to Colombia.

The helicopters, which Canada bought from the United States in the 1970s,
were used as tactical troop transports and as light cargo carriers until
they were replaced by the Griffons in the 1990s.

Rimstad said they have been re-equipped as gunships and are used by three
anti-narcotics battalions of the Colombian army.

The Colombian army and its paramilitary allies have been blamed for
massacres in a ''dirty war'' against rebels and drug traffickers.

         Copyright 2001 Toronto Star
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OTTAWA CITIZEN

Wednesday, 21 March 2001

                 Export law allows sale of arms to Colombia:
                         Human rights groups call
                   on government to change legislation
                 -------------------------------------------

OTTAWA, Canada -- The federal government should close a loophole in its
export law that allowed 33 surplus Canadian Forces helicopters to be sold
to the Colombian military, human-rights groups said yesterday.

The choppers were sold for $20 million to the U.S. State Department, but
were refurbished with new weapons and passed on for use in the "Plan
Colombia" drug-interdiction effort.

Colombia's military has been repeatedly denounced for its abysmal record
on human rights and its tacit participation in the massacre of civilians
by paramilitary groups. An estimated 20,000 civilians have been killed in
the fighting.

The Bell CH135 helicopters were originally manufactured in Fort Worth,
Tex., and sold to the Canadian government. The choppers are similar to the
Bell 212 "Huey," the workhouse of the U.S. army in the Vietnam War.

The choppers were rendered surplus after about 20 years of service, then
sold to the State Department between 1998 and 2000. The deal was brokered
by Lancaster Aviation, a private aircraft reseller.

An export permit was not required because the helicopters were originally
sold to the U.S.

According to a report by the Inter-Church Committee of Human Rights in
Latin America, the twin-engine helicopters were retrofitted with machine
guns in the U.S. and sent to Colombian counter-narcotics battalions.

"Canadian military helicopters are now in hands of a military with a
well-established record of gross human-rights violations," said Keith
Rimstead of Amnesty International, one of the groups that came together to
denounce the deal.

He called on Ottawa to extend export controls to the final end-user of
military equipment, so that intermediaries in the U.S. cannot resell
weapons to countries with dubious human-rights records.

New Democratic MP Svend Robinson said yesterday that Canadians would be
"appalled" to learn that the Canadian government was complicit in
supplying helicopters to Plan Colombia.

"At the very least, the Canadian government was guilty of willful
blindness," he said.

"The obvious question is 'Why on Earth didn't the government ask the State
Department if they would be used in the military component of Plan
Colombia?' "

He said the new revelations about the deal contradict the position of
David Kilgour, our secretary of state for Latin America, who told the
Commons last month, "Canada will not be providing any military equipment,
as we would be violating our non-involvement in the war in Colombia."

Kilgour said yesterday Canada could not control what the U.S. did with the
helicopters once the deal was completed. "When you sell something to
somebody, it's a definition of a sale that you lose the right to control
what is done to it," he said.

The human-rights groups also criticized the government for allowing
Newfoundland-based Vector Aerospace to sign a $6.5-million helicopter
servicing contract with the Colombian military.

A spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade
said the Vector deal did not require an export permit, because the
government was satisfied that no military equipment was involved.

Former Ontario premier David Peterson, a member of the Vector board of
directors, said this week that it was up to the federal government to vet
the deal. "They passed judgment on this.

"Everything was done according to the rules."

         Copyright 2001 Southam Inc.

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EDMONTON SUN [Canada]

Wednesday, 21 March 2001

                 Helicopter sales come under fire
                 --------------------------------

         By David Gamble

OTTAWA, Canada -- Former Canadian Forces choppers are being used by the
repressive Colombian military against their own people - and the Liberal
government doesn't seem to care, human rights activists charged yesterday.

It's all because of a loophole in Canadian trade law that allowed the
Defence Department to sell 40 helicopters to the U.S. State Department for
$20 million two years ago.

The Americans then handed 33 of them over to the Colombian Army.

Officially the American-made 1970's vintage Huey choppers, which were
refurbished, are being used in the war against Colombian drug lords.

But Amnesty International and the Roman Catholic Church say the Colombian
army doesn't always distinguish between the drug war and its battle
against anti-government rebels.

"Is Canada to sell its good name as a peace-making nation to be an
accomplice in the war in Colombia?" asked Archbishop Roger Ebacher of the
Gatineau-Hull diocese.

Ebacher argued that the Defence Department would never have been allowed
to sell the choppers directly to the Colombian army because of a Canadian
policy that bars the sale of military equipment to known human rights
violators.

Junior foreign minister and Edmonton MP David Kilgour rejected plugging
the loophole, adding that Canada could have no say over what the Americans
do with the helicopters once they are sold.

"We do not give export permits to the government of the United States,"
Kilgour said.

         Copyright 2001 Edmonton Sun
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