LONDON (AP) - European users of cocaine, heroin and marijuana need to take more responsibility for the drug warfare that claims thousands of lives in Colombia, the country's defence minister said in London yesterday.

Jorge Uribe, who is meeting with British officials as part of a tour of Europe, said European countries should understand that conflict in his country was caused by global factors, and international help was needed to address it.

"What Colombia is facing is not a war, it is a confrontation against criminal groups of a multinational nature based in Colombia, but doing narco-business throughout the world from which they get the raw materials for the drugs, the arms and the money to continue torturing our community," Uribe told The Associated Press in London.

"Whoever is consuming a line of cocaine or a marijuana smoke or heroin, they should close their eyes and realise that there is a hidden line between that act and the thousands and thousands of people who have lost their lives, who have lost their limbs, who have lost all hope, just to be able to provide them with those matters [drugs]," Uribe said.

He said the proceeds of cocaine used by Europeans may also be contributing to funding international terror groups.
Uribe welcomed a planned British campaign that will call on Britons to boycott cocaine by drawing attention to lives lost through rival drug gang warfare in Colombia.

Colombia produces most of the world's cocaine and much of its heroin. The rebel group FARC, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, and a handful of right-wing paramilitary groups control a large share of drug trafficking.

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