Thursday, October 30, 2008 7:30 PM
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic — Legislators are debating a proposal that would let Dominican authorities shoot at drug-laden planes and boats that refuse to land or dock when ordered, despite threats from the U.S. to suspend anti-drug efforts if the law is approved.
The proposal received preliminary approval late last year and senators are expected to debate it by year's end. Congress leader Julio Cesar Valentin urged lawmakers to approve the law and accused the United States _ whose forces fire on suspected drug boats and flights — of "meddling" when it sent letters warning them of the consequences.
"Legislators should not cower under those threats, since the assistance that the Dominican Republic receives from the U.S. government to fight drug trafficking is minimal," he said.
The U.S. has provided Dominican authorities with equipment and training, and helped carry out drug operations in recent years, according to a State Department report, which did not provide a monetary value.
The Caribbean country is among the top 20 nations that the State Department considers major producers of, or transit sites for, illegal drugs. Last year, Dominican authorities seized about 5 tons of cocaine, 227 pounds of heroin and made nearly 13,000 drug-related arrests.
In a visit to the Dominican Republic earlier this year, U.S. drug czar John Walters urged legislators to drop the proposal because it could endanger the lives of innocent people.
"We have been very clear in our recommendation that such force should not be used," the director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy said.
However, the U.S. has authorized such force in the past and continues to do so.
In 2001, the U.S. pulled out of interdiction program flights in Peru and Colombia after a CIA-operated surveillance plane misidentified a possible drug flight. A 35-year-old woman from Michigan and her 7-month-old daughter were killed when a Peruvian warplane shot down their aircraft.
The U.S. resumed interdiction program flights in 2004 in Colombia.
More recently, the U.S. Coast Guard fired at the engines of a suspected drug smuggling boat near Colombia over the weekend, injuring one man.
It is the fifth time since the late 1990s that shrapnel injuries have been reported following 63 interdiction cases in which a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter fired to damage a boats' engines.
Authorities said they would review the case to ensure all safety procedures were followed.
"The U.S. Coast Guard and its counter drug partners take extraordinary steps to avoid injuring smuggling suspects," the statement said.
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