Environment

AERIAL HERBICIDE WAR ON DRUGS POISONS LAND, WATER

SAN FRANCISCO, California - The public interest environmental law firm
Earthjustice today called on the United Nations Commission on Human Rights
to pressure the United States and Colombia to halt the aerial application
of herbicides to eradicate coca and poppy plants and use alternative methods.

Since the spraying began, said Earthjustice, there have been thousands of
reports of serious health problems, destruction of food crops and
livestock, contamination of surface water, damage to surrounding wilderness
areas, and deforestation resulting from the need of peasants to clear
forests and plant food crops on uncontaminated lands.

Colombian peanut farmer mourns crop lost to aerial herbicide spraying.
(Photo courtesy usfumigation.org) Earthjustice submitted the intervention
with the support of the Amazon Alliance, an umbrella group of Amazonian
peoples' organizations, and environmental and human rights groups. The
aerial spraying and drift of an herbicide mixture over vast areas of the
Colombian and Ecuadorian countryside by private U.S. defense contractors
with military protection is harming peasants and indigenous communities,
the intervention states.

In the fall of 2000, the United States and Colombia began an intensive
aerial herbicide application program to eradicate coca and poppy crops in
drug producing areas of Colombia as part of an anti-narcotics initiative
called Plan Colombia.

The U.S. Department of State says the decision to use aerial spraying is
justified because "herbicide application by airplane is the most cost
effective way of coping with the magnitude of the problem and ensuring that
eradication operations do not turn violent."

This strategy in the war on drugs deprives the affected residents of
Colombia and Ecuador of "their rights to a clean and healthy environment,
health, life, sustenance, property, inviolability of the home and family,
and access to information," said the petitioning groups.

The aerial spraying has also drawn objections from 141 scientists,
physicians, environmental and human rights groups from across the United
States and around the world. Last August, they wrote an Open Letter to the
U.S. Senate which said, "From an environmental perspective, applying a
concentrated broad spectrum herbicide over delicate tropical ecosystems is
almost certain to cause significant damage. Moreover, human health impacts
from a concentrated mixture are obviously more likely."

Scott Pasternack, associate attorney with Earthjustice's International
Program, said, "Sadly, the United States and Colombia are saying that this
strategy is more important than the health, livelihood, and environment of
Colombian and Ecuadorian rural communities."

The Earthjustice statement to the UN Commission on Human Rights lists
health harms from the spraying that include "gastrointestinal disorders
(e.g. severe bleeding, nausea, and vomiting), testicular inflammation, high
fevers, dizziness, respiratory ailments, skin rashes, and severe eye
irritation. The spraying may also have caused birth defects and miscarriages."

The spraying has destroyed more than 1,500 hectares (3,700 acres) of legal
food crops such as yucca, corn, plantains, tomatoes, sugar cane, grass for
livestock grazing and fruit trees, said Earthjustice, and has resulted in
the death of cows and chickens.

"Regarding environmental harms," the petition said, "the spraying has
parched wilderness areas and caused deforestation and loss of critical
habitat to endangered bird species because spray victims relocate to farm
their legal crops. Other environmental harms include contamination of
surface waters and death of fish."

"The State Department has concealed information about the true toxicity of
the spray mixture and has failed to conduct proper environmental and health
assessments," said Pasternack.

Earthjustice says the situation provides a clear example of the link
between the environment and human rights - severe damage to the air, water,
land and biodiversity caused by the spraying is violating various human rights.