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Slorc claims it can wipe out pill p



Subject: Slorc claims it can wipe out pill plants

Bangkok Post July 10th
Slorc claims it can wipe out pill plants

Minister says border needs development

Nusara Thaitawat


Burma claims it can eradicate narcotics plants in five years with 
international help in developing border areas inhabited mostly by ethnic 
minorities.

Minister for Progress of Border Areas and National Races and Development 
Affairs Maung Tin said amphetamine production, a recent Thai import, 
could also be halted with help from Thailand and Laos.

The minister, in Bangkok for the second ministerial meeting on drug 
cooperation in the Mekong region tomorrow, said Rangoon has spent $385 
million and 6.5 billion kyats since 1989 on development projects to wipe 
out opium and marijuana cultivation.

Since the first amphetamine plants were set up along the Burmese-Thai 
border last year, Rangoon has seized nine million tablets, he said.

He denied the State Law and Order Restoration Council condoned drug 
trafficking and harboured drug warlords. "The truth is the truth, we 
don't have to explain ourselves," he said.

"Khun Sa has given up drug trafficking and we have also received 
assurances from leaders of all ethnic groups that they will give it up 
and persuade their people to do the same," he said.

He admitted though that in some areas, people could still not give up 
their old habits because of poverty. "But the policy is clear to 
eradicate narcotics plants nationwide," he said.

U Maung Tin cited the Mongla region, east of Kengtung in Shan State, 
which was declared an opium-free zone in March at the end of a six-year 
eradication plan, as an example of his government's commitment.

"We will establish more opium-free zones," he said. "Our next target 
areas are in the Wa and Kokang region."

The areas, also in Shan State, bordering China, are known as the two 
most fertile grounds for opium cultivation in Southeast Asia.

The United Nations International Drug Control Programme and the 
government are hosting the ministerial meeting. Burma, China, Laos and 
Thailand signed a memorandum of understanding to cooperate against drugs 
in 1993. They were joined two years later by Cambodia and Vietnam.



"THERE WILL BE NO REAL DEMOCRACY IF WE CAN'T GURANTEE THE RIGHTS OF THE 
MINORITY ETHNIC PEOPLE.  ONLY UNDERSTANDING THEIR SUFFERING AND HELPING 
THEM TO EXERCISE THEIR RIGHTS WILL ASSIST PREVENTING FROM THE 
DISINTEGRATION AND THE SESESSION."  "WITHOUT UNDERSTANDING THEIR 
STRENGTH, WE CAN'T TOPPLE THE SLORC AND BURMA WILL NEVER BE IN PEACE."


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