[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index
][Thread Index
]
NEWS - Burden of Drug Elimination H
- Subject: NEWS - Burden of Drug Elimination H
- From: Rangoonp@xxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 04 Dec 1998 21:32:00
Subject: NEWS - Burden of Drug Elimination Heavy: Myanmar Leader-JOKE !
NOTE : "The burden of this task is indeed heavy and we are doing
mostly on our own resources," Khin Nyunt. Much of their 'own' resources
were GIVEN to them by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency and U.S. Military
for fighting drugs. Though in too many cases, this same equipment has
been seen in use to attack villages and murder and destroy NON-drug
producing camps.
Burden of Drug Elimination Heavy: Myanmar Leader
Xinhua
02-DEC-98
YANGON (Dec. 2) XINHUA - Myanmar is determined and
committed to entirely eliminate drug menace to mankind as
its national and international duty, said Myanmar leader
Lieutenant-General Khin Nyunt.
"The burden of this task is indeed heavy and we are doing
mostly on our own resources," Khin Nyunt, who is First
Secretary of the Myanmar State Peace and Development
Council, complained at a ceremony Monday marking the
beginning of commercial production of buckwheat, a kind of
opium-substitute crop, in Kokang's Ta Shwe Tang area,
northern Shan state of the country.
Myanmar, however, welcomes the participation of
international community and organizations to facilitate the
task and reach the common goal of total eradication of
narcotic drugs, he stated.
The buckwheat production pilot project began in 1996 when
Japan proposed the growing of buckwheat as a substitute
crop for poppy production, reaching a memorandum of
understanding with Myanmar on buying all the buckwheat
produced.
The project in the Ta Shwe Tang area proved highly
successful with more than 93 hectares of the crops
harvested and the initiation of the commercial production
stands as a landmark for the people of the area in their
fight
against narcotics.
The Secretary pointed out that the project has an impact not
only on the area but also on the country as a whole, saying
that the efforts for crops substitution is part of the
overall
endeavor of the government to combat the drug menace.
According to official estimation, in the 1998-99 fiscal year
which began in April, a total of over 5,898 hectares could
be
placed under poppy substitution crops including paddy, corn,
sugarcane and Japanese buckwheat.
The estimation added that in 1999 and 2000, it is targeted
that a total of 4,916 hectares could also be put under
paddy,
wheat, coffee seedlings and rubber.
Myanmar has worked out a plan for total elimination of
narcotic drugs within 15 years, initiating the move in 48
townships in the country which cover those in Shan, Kachin,
Kayah and Chin states after successful transformation of
eastern Shan state's Mongla region into an opium-free zone
in April 1997.