Colombia pursues US troop cocaine smuggling case. 15/04/2005. ABC News
Online
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http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200504/s1345933.htm]
Last Update: Friday, April 15, 2005. 11:15am (AEST)
Colombia pursues US troop cocaine smuggling case
Colombia's defence minister has said a deal giving US soldiers immunity
from
prosecution was amendable, as law-makers want to charge five US soldiers
suspected of cocaine smuggling.
Five US soldiers were arrested aboard a US military plane leaving Colombia
on March 29, allegedly with 16 kilograms of cocaine.
They had been in Colombia on an anti-drug mission. One of the five has
been
released for lack of evidence.
"I am not saying that [the agreement] should be modified, but if problems
are found that merit a change, I am sure that officials at the Colombian
Foreign Ministry and US State Department officials would sit down for
that,"
Jorge Alberto Uribe told re****ters.
US Ambassador to Bogota, William Wood, said the soldiers are covered by a
1974 US-Colombian immunity deal, which allows them to be tried under US
law.
Colombian Foreign Minister Carolina Barco agrees.
However, some Colombian law-makers argue that a bilateral extradition
treaty
for drug offences takes precedence, and therefore US soldiers who break
the
law in Colombia should face justice in Colombia.
The soldiers were serving as part of the US war on drugs under the $US3
billion ($3.9 billion) "Plan Colombia," which pays for equipment and some
800 soldiers and 600 contractors to work in-country.
-AFP
--
The cautious seldom err.
--Con****ius
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