DRUG FLIGHTS TO RESUME

The United States resumed its support on Tuesday for drug interception flights
over Colombia, which were suspended following the 2001 deaths of a U.S.
missionary and her baby in an incident over Peru.

The United States and Colombia have been negotiating for months over setting
safety procedures that would restore the program. Under the program, U.S.
intelligence and equipment help Colombian planes track and sometimes force down
aircraft suspected of transporting cocaine or heroin. Officials did not specify
the new safety procedures.

U.S.-backed air surveillance and interdiction of traffickers ended abruptly in
Peru and Colombia on April 20, 2001, when the Peruvian air force and a CIA
contractor downed a floatplane and killed Veronica Bowers, 35, a missionary
from Muskegon, and her infant daughter.

U.S. officials have said the flights over Peru could resume later this year.