Interpol:Truth or Lies about Drugs?

[Myanmar009@xxxxxxx]

The Goverment of Myanmar has been  launching  anti-narcotic operations on its
own without any assistance from the outside world and the initiatives and
achievements have been acknowledged by the USG [= United States Government]

Narcotics Control Strategy Report, 1997
Released by the Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement
Affairs, U.S.
Department of State
Washington, DC, March 1998 	

The drug-traffickers wanted by the USG are as follows:


Among the top leaders of those ethnic groups believed by the USG to be
involved in the heroin
and/or amphetamine trade are: Sai Lin (Lin Mingxian) of the Eastern Shan State
Army (ESSA);
Yang Maoliang, Peng Jiasheng and Liu Goushi of the MNDAA; Pao Yuqiang, Li Zuru
and Wei
Xuekang of the United Wa State Army; Mahtu Naw of the Kachin Defense Army
(KDA); Mong Sa
La of the Monkoe Defense Army (MDA); and Yawd Serk of the Shan United
Revolutionary Army
(SURA), which was formerly allied with drug lord Chang Qifu's (Khun Sa's) Mong
Tai Army.

Acknowledgements from the USG about Myanmar's anti-drug efforts and
achievements:

III. Country Actions Against Drugs in 1997 
Policy Initiatives. Burmese counternarcotics efforts improved during 1997,
especially with regard
to heroin and opium seizures as well as the destruction of heroin refineries.
A quieter security
situation in parts of northern Shan State permitted the Burmese anti-drug
forces to conduct more
vigorous law enforcement efforts, especially in the Kachin and Kokang regions.
The Kokang area, in
particular, is a major center of narcotics cultivation and refining. These
efforts must be stepped up if
they are to have a significant impact on the overall trafficking problem. 
With support from DEA and US embassies in Rangoon and Bangkok, the Burmese and
Thai
governments agreed to undertake joint operations against drug trafficking
along Thailand's northern
border with Burma. To this end, they agreed in principle to establish a joint
anti-drug task force in
Tachilek, Burma, and Mae Sai, Thailand. This approach, which has been under
consideration for
several years, has the potential to permit coordinated enforcement operations
in one of the most
active trafficking areas in Southeast Asia. 
The GOB also apprehended and rendered to Thailand, Li Yunchung, a former
associate of Chang
Qifu who had bribed his way out of a Thai jail and fled to Burma. Li had been
awaiting extradition

by the Thai to the United States on narcotics charges. Acting on intelligence
provided by DEA
through the US Embassy in Rangoon, Burmese authorities arrested Li in April
and formally turned
him over to Thai authorities in May. The GOB understood that the Thai would
extradite Li to the
United States. This was the first time the Burmese had returned to Thailand a
high profile drug
trafficker sought by the US. 
The Burmese continued to refuse the rendition of drug lord Chang Qifu on the
grounds that he had
not violated his 1996 surrender agreement. This agreement reportedly
stipulated that if Chang Qifu
ended his insurgency and retired from the drug trade, the GOB would provide
him with security in
Rangoon and allow him to conduct legitimate business. Chang Qifu confirmed in
a public interview
his plans to fund construction of a new Rangoon-Mandalay highway valued at
some $250 million; a
Burmese cabinet member confirmed the accuracy of Chang's statement. Burmese
authorities assert
that he will continue to enjoy immunity from prosecution in Burma or rendition
to another country
as long as he does not violate his surrender agreement. This issue remains a
source of friction with
the US due to standard international legal principles calling for punishment
of traffickers and other
international criminals. In addition, Chang Qifu reportedly remains involved
in the drug trade
through his subordinates, thereby violating the reported terms of the
surrender agreement. 
The SPDC affirmed its intention to increase its efforts to implement the
ongoing "master plan for the
development of border areas and national races." The plan calls for a program
of integrated
development combined with law enforcement aimed at improving the living
standards in the ethnic
areas and providing viable economic alternatives to opium cultivation. Little
effort had been made
by the end of 1997 to link this plan, conceived in 1990, to measurable
reductions in opium
cultivation in the ethnic areas. 
The GOB and UNDCP completed in late 1996 a 12-month pilot integrated rural
development
project in the Wa region initiated to take advantage of the United Wa State
Army's unilateral
decision announced in 1995 to establish five "opium poppy-free zones" in its
area of control in order
to bring about a gradual reduction of opium cultivation. The pilot project was
designed to test the
feasibility of a planned five-year, 15 million dollar rural development
project aimed at opium
income and crop substitution. In contrast to the UNDCP's previous projects in
Mong Yang and
Tachilek, the Wa project will incorporate a monitoring and evaluation
component designed to
measure progress in eliminating opium cultivation. As an integrated
development scheme, it will
also focus on infrastructure as well as the provision of educational and
health facilities in the Ho
Tao and Mong Pawk districts of the Wa region. 
Accomplishments. Overall, the Burmese drug control situation remained bleak
during 1997. The
Burmese effort to seize heroin and opium improved markedly in percentage terms
during 1997, but,

even so, the total seized was less than one per cent of Burma's estimated
annual opium/heroin
output. The combined police and military narcotics task forces seized a record
1401 kilos of heroin,
a more than two-fold increase over 1996 seizures, which totaled 493 kilos.
Seizures of opium gum
rose to 7884 kilos, compared with 1300 kilos in 1996. The seizure of 5.04
million amphetamine
tablets roughly equalled last year's totals; the two-year trend in seizures of
precursor chemical, acetic
anhydride, was up sharply, although 1997 seizures fell from the level in 1996.
The authorities
destroyed 33 heroin refineries during the year, compared with 11 the previous
year. Most of the
refineries were located using information provided by DEA from the US Embassy
in Rangoon. In
November, the authorities made the largest heroin seizure ever recorded in
Burma - 297 kilos near
Muse in northern Shan State on the Chinese border. 
Law Enforcement Measures. The 1993 narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances
law brought
the Burmese legal code into conformity with the 1988 UN Drug Convention. As
such, the 1993 law
contains useful legal tools for addressing money laundering, the seizure of
drug-related assets, and
the prosecution of drug conspiracy cases. However, by the end of the year,
these provisions had
remained apparently unused as Burmese police and judicial officials had been
slow to implement the
law, targeting few if any major traffickers and their drug-related assets.
Burmese drug officials claim
they lack sufficient expertise to deal with money laundering and financial
crimes, which is not a
sufficient explanation of the near total failure to address money laundering,
which is believed to be
carried out on a massive scale. 
Formally, the Burmese government's drug enforcement effort is led by the
office of the Central
Committee for Drug Abuse Control (CCDAC), which is comprised of personnel from
various
security services, including the police, customs, military intelligence, and
the army. CCDAC now
has 18 drug enforcement task forces around the country, most located in major
cities and along key
transit routes near Burma's borders with China, India and Thailand. The CCDAC,
which is under
the control of the Directorate of Defense Services Intelligence (DDSI) and
relies, in part, on military
personnel to execute law enforcement duties, continues to suffer from a lack
of adequate resources to
support its law enforcement mission. 
Corruption. There is no evidence that the government, on an institutional
level, is involved in the
drug trade. However, there are persistent and reliable reports that officials,
particularly army
personnel posted in outlying areas, are involved in the drug business. Army
personnel wield
considerable political clout locally, and their involvement in trafficking is
a significant problem. In
April, the authorities arrested 11 officers - including one lieutenant colonel
who received a 25-year
prison term - for colluding with drug traffickers in the operation of a heroin
lab in northern Shan
State. The Burmese have said that they would welcome information from others
on corruption

within their ranks. 
The lack of a vigorous enforcement effort against money laundering also leaves
Burma vulnerable
to the growing influence of traffickers through the use of drug proceeds in
legitimate business
ventures. Businesses owned by family members of former or present traffickers
have invested
heavily in infrastructure projects, such as roads and port facilities, as well
as in hotels and other real
estate development projects during the year. It is believed that drug profits
formed the seed capital
for these otherwise legitimate enterprises. 
Agreements and Treaties. Burma is a party to the 1961 Single Convention, the
1971 UN
Convention on Psychotropic Substances and the 1988 UN Drug Convention.
However, the Rangoon
regime maintains its reservation on extradition of Burmese citizens to other
countries. The United
States does not have a mutual legal assistance treaty (MLAT) with Burma. It is
the opinion of the
US Government that a US-U.K. extradition treaty, which was accepted by the
post-independence
Burmese government in 1948, remains in force and is applicable for the US
extradition of drug
fugitives from Burma. The GOB continues to refuse to recognize the
applicability of this treaty. In
May, the GOB, with UNDCP, signed a six-nation (Burma, Cambodia, China, Laos,
Thailand,
Vietnam) memorandum of understanding on a sub-regional action plan aimed at
controlling
precursor chemicals and reducing illicit drug use in the highlands of
Southeast Asia. The GOB
signed bilateral drug control agreements with India in 1993, with Bangladesh
in 1994, with
Vietnam in 1995, and with the Russian Federation, Laos, and the Philippines in
1997. 

Researched and Compiled by 

Myanmar009