Jim Kolbe: “if you will close on your side and yield back, I will close on our side. Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Chairman, let me just kind of…”

“if you will close on your side and yield back, I will close on our side. Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Chairman, let me just kind of go over a few things here. First of all, on the issue that somehow we are withdrawing from our support for Colombia, let me remind my colleagues that the President of the United States asked for $506.2 million. The committee provided $545.2 million. My amendment would reduce that to $515.2 million, or $9 million above the President's request for Colombia. So we are not doing anything here to walk away from Colombia. Secondly, on the issue of human rights, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights reported this year that more grave violations of human rights were committed directly by Colombia's military forces than in the past. The ICRC has recorded a 13.6 percent increase in disappearances. The number of people forced from their homes by violence increased by 8 percent over the past year. I introduced into the Record earlier, and I will remind my colleagues about an article that appeared in the Financial Times. The headlines, Colombia, The Most Dangerous Place For Trade Unionists. And I also inserted into the Record, and I will remind my colleagues about this article that appeared in a number of newspapers that the Colombian military units assassinated U.S. trained antinarcotics teams at the bidding of the drug mafia. So in some areas, there is improvement, but Colombia is still near the top of any human rights watch list.…”