The Miami Herald from Miami, Florida • 206

-22A THE HERALD FRIDAY FEBRUARY 27 1998 BRO For grieving mom brutal imagery deathbed statement describes her death ts 1 The State Department made public on Thursday its evaluations of 30 anti-narcotics cooperation with the United States: Certified as fully cooperating: Aruba Bahamas Belize Bolivia Brazil China Dominican Republic Ecuador Guatemala Haiti Hong Kong India Jamaica Laos Malaysia Mexico Panama Peru Taiwan Thailand Venezuela and Vietnam Decertified but not subject to sanctions: Cambodia Colombia Pakistan and Paraguay Decertified and subject to sanctions: Afghanistan Burma Iran and Nigeria Associated Press Samper hails US action on Colombia Waiver recognizes anti-drug efforts By CHRISTOPHER MARQUIS And TIM JOHNSON Herald Staff Writers BOGOTA Colombia Voicing satisfaction that Colombia is finally out of the US doghouse President Ernesto Samper said has been with the US decision Thursday to upgrade his nation as a worthy ally in the drug war has any country in the world done so much in so little time in the all-out war against the dark forces of the drug Samper said In an annual rating of counter-narcotics THE AMERICAS efforts by other countries the credibility: described her to a including an appendicitis scar that nobody knew about at the Calvar said When he and co-detective Carlos Avila visited Branch in 1996 he told them essentially the same story he originally gave Susan Billig They believe that Branch lived with Amy but they believe he took a close intimate look that day in 1975 Long recollection not like going to remember the same story from 20 years ago Carlos and I thought he was telling the Calvar said What about the deathbed story he told after the detectives went away? The detectives are not convinced but they are inclined to think it was true somebody pretty much knows going to die he pretty much comes clean He make up something when he could have just let it Calvar said If dying liars tell the truth why did Branch say one thing to Calvar and another to the woman? the the detective said what reason would he have to lie to Believing the story is one thing another to confirm it with something more believable than the statements of people who are hard to believe With nothing but that it will be hard to justify arresting anyone Harder still to win a conviction if it comes to that Calvar and Avila are looking for better evidence They know if any exists They got another lead from deathbed talk as reported by the woman after the detectives left Charlottesville: the hell do they keep bothering Branch griped they talk to another gang member in New Interviewed convict The man he meant is in a Virginia prison and a jailbird continuously since May 1974 two months after Amy Billig disappeared The city detectives went to see the convict this week They came back Wednesday night without the corroboration they needed but not empty-handed Detective Calvar said the man whose name he tell claimed he had been in South Florida but left in 1973 and was in Virginia when Amy Billig was abducted in Miami Calvar said his story if true should be easy to verify promised to help Calvar said gave me some names of people down here that I was not aware Making an arrest and winning a conviction are secondary he said The primary goal is to help Susan Billig come to terms with the crime after 24 years of probably false hope that Amy is somehow somewhere still alive No investigator who ever touched this case has failed to feel the pain She is ready to let go of her dreams but A part of her requires confirmation of Paul deathbed story of awful death want she said means never going to see her again All these years I thought she was alive and see her again People said obsessed Yes obsessed Maybe I was making myself feel all those leads were good because I wanted to believe Amy was alive a very difficult thing for me to believe right now I been able to cry I been able to White House gave conditional endorsement of Colombia for its anti-drug efforts after two years of threatening economic sanctions and declaring that Samper was virtually in the pocket of drug traffickers has been done to the lonely and not always well understood fight that we Colombians have been Samper said Business leaders politicians and law enforcement officers voiced relief that Washington had certified Colombia for its anti-drug efforts through a national interest waiver removes a cloud over said Miguel Gomez head of the Colombian Flower Growers Association gives us reason to keep on fighting against drug trafficking because the job country should feel said National Police Chief Rosso Jose Serrano who noted that 45 police officers were killed and 78 wounded last year by drug traffickers Not a change of heart In a Washington news conference Secretary of State Madeleine Albright stressed that the move to grant Colombia a national interest waiver is intended to recognize the efforts of Colombian police and to pave the way for better relations with next administration Presidential elections are slated for May 31 and Samper leaves office in early August Officials said it did not indicate a change of heart toward Samper whom the United States accuses of receiving $6 million in campaign funds in 1994 from narcotics traffickers current government has not demonstrated full political support for counternarcotics Albright said on the eve of that congressional and presidential elections the waiver decision is intended to lay the groundwork for increased future cooperation and to support those in Colombia who are striving to strengthen the rule of law and buttress their embattled Except for Paraguay every other nation of the region received the full endorsement "Hr Herald File 1996 WRESTLING WITH UNKNOWN: i Susan Billig mother 6 latest detective Calvar thought so too Paul involvement dates from 1975 when he made a phone call to Susan Billig whose urgent search for her daughter was widely publicized saw a picture of your daughter in the Branch said girl lived with me She was my girlfriend I bought her from a biker in i Branch told Billig that he was arrested later and left the girl and his motorcycle with his roommate When he got out of jail they were gone And another biker who saw a picture of Amy identified her as girlfriend There was no other proof and the police now think it was a lie but the story seemed plausible at the time Motorcycle gangs were notorious for that kind of behavior Something else gave Branch 5 i Digital (di j3 background noise while advanced features such DII-318 BILLIG FROM 1A questioned him in a trailer where he lived near Charlottesville Va They came home without the answers they wanted most but pretty sure that Amy was a captive of bikers including Branch on the last day of her life The woman with whom Branch lived apparently knew nothing about the Billig case you tell that detective the she asked him he answered The police had known about Branch for years suspecting he knew what happened knew him as a close-up witness if not as an active participant Branch never admitted it detective Jack Calvar said but as he lay dying he told the woman that a group of Pagans stopped for Amy that afternoon in Coconut Grove on a Main Highway comer where she was trying to hitch a ride lied to the cops I know what happened to that Branch told the woman Susan Billig believes she truthfully repeated the story So do the police said this girl went to a party with a girl named Nancy in the club the detective said she was at the party she took drugs and got real messed up She got sassy with one of the bikers and it him off They decided to pull a Pulling a train is slang for a gang rape Finally overdosed fought back so they kept injecting her with drugs and she finally overdosed and died They took her body to the The first detective to lead the investigation of Amy disappearance suspected something like that had happened to her The mmmm fit I ERICSSON DF-388 I i Kit I IT I btitfiwn Requited IWNOtKX' I I that it was cooperating in good faith with the United States Paraguay which had been certified last year received a national interest waiver amid US complaints it failed to take action against traffickers or make significant seizures particularly in the area bordering Argentina and Brazil Satisfied with waiver Congressional Republicans voiced satisfaction with the waiver for Colombia saying it will bolster their efforts to ensure that US weapons and ammunition flow to Colombian security forces without facing onerous restrictions mandated by a decertification verdict Rep Benjamin Gilman chairman of the House International Relations Committee said the insistence on decertifying Colombia for the past two years has undercut anti-narcotics efforts there and jeopardized US interests net effect on the ground has been to starve those Colombians dedicated to fighting the drug trade and preserving their democracy from these drug dealers and narco-guerrillas of vital supplies and Gilman said result has been an unmitigated disaster for the forces trying to combat narcotics A study released Thursday by the General Accounting Office investigative arm indicated that the decertification of Colombia was accompanied by a rise in illicit production and trafficking there and impeded the release of US counternarcotics aid to the Colombian police and military House Speaker Newt Gingrich voiced criticism of the certification process which has drawn fire throughout the region as an affront in which Washington escapes scrutiny while sitting in judgment of others ought to establish a certification process for the United Gingrich said not fair for us to pick on Mexico and Colombia I mean where do the drugs 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