Letter to the Editor (Washington Po

[OKKAR66127@xxxxxxx]

The following is the Letter to the Editor (Washington Post) from Myanmar
Embassy.


March 20, 1998

The Editor
Washington Post
Washington, D.C.


Sir,


		I find the Post editorial, "Burma's Drug Lords"(18 March) disappointing. The
Post's negativism stands out in stark contrast to the growing recognition in
the US that drugs have become a global problem requiring global solutions. The
US simply cannot do the job alone and needs the co-operation of all countries
concerned. If multinational co-operation to overcome the drug menace is to be
fruitful, the US cannot afford such emotive issues as politics and human
rights to cloud its judgement.

		Notwithstanding the 1988 decision of the US to suspend assistance to
Myanmar, the country's counter narcotic activities have persisted. The Myanmar
Government relying on its own limited resources and capital has achieved
significant progress. In 1997 the Myanmar Government made more seizures of
drugs than in the past.

		Consider the following:

-	The Myanmar authorities on 27 February 1998 publicly destroyed an
unprecedented amount of seized drugs. The public destruction, the 12th in a
series which began in 1990, was witnessed by the diplomatic corps, UN
officials, the former Secretary-General of the ASEAN, representatives of the
Young Presidents Organization as well as foreign and local newsmen, including
those representing the Economist, AP and the International Herald Tribune. The
drugs torched included 4,587kg of opium, 898kg of heroin, 94kg of brown sugar,
21kg of low grade opium, 139kg of marijuana, 2,842,783 Amphetamine tablets,
4,845 cough tablets containing narcotics and 750 Methaqualon tablets. A total
of 9kg of opium oil, 11kg of liquid opium, 1,500 litres of Phensedyl, 88
gallons of cough syrup containing narcotics and 180 ampoules of morphine were
also destroyed. The diplomats, UN officials and foreign and local newsmen had
the opportunity to test the drugs before they were destroyed. The street value
of the drugs destroyed was estimated at US $ 1.2 billion.

-	Myanmar counter narcotic forces, aided by intelligence from the US Drug
Enforcement Administration, destroyed 33 major opium refineries. Indeed, the
1997 figures represent nearly half of all heroin refineries destroyed over the
past decade.

-	A joint US-Myanmar team carried out a poppy yield survey in the Shan State
as recently as 16-21 February 1998. The team which included US Embassy
officials and officials of the US Department of Agriculture also observed
poppy fields being destroyed by the Myanmar counter narcotic forces. This is
the fourth joint US-Myanmar poppy survey mission. Others were undertaken in
1993, 1995 and 1997.

-	Myanmar working with the United Nations Drug Control Programme ( UNDCP ) is
actively engaged in sub-regional drug-abuse control efforts. Crop substitution
programmes have been ongoing since June 1992. Agreements have been signed with
Bangladesh, China, India, Laos, The Philippines, Russia,Thailand and Vietnam.

		The Myanmar Government is fully aware of its internationalist duty to combat
the drugs menace and will continue to tackle the problem to the fullest extent
permitted by its resources.


Yours sincerely,


(Tin Winn) 
Ambassador