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AFP-Myanmar lashes out at Thai drug



Subject: AFP-Myanmar lashes out at Thai drug accusations

Myanmar lashes out at Thai drug accusations
BANGKOK, July 26 (AFP) - Myanmar responded angrily Monday to Thai
accusations that the junta in Yangon was using Thailand as a ready market
for amphetamines produced in the Golden Triangle.
Myanmar's embassy in Bangkok said Yangon "categorically and emphatically
denied the accusations" made by a senior Thai anti-narcotics official in an
article in the Bangkok Post daily on Sunday.

"Starting from 1973, measures against the menace of narcotic drugs were
undertaken vigorously by the armed forces, police and other organisations
 ... with the loss of many lives," an embassy statement said.

It said 801 soldiers, including 27 officers, were killed fighting drug
armies in Myanmar's rugged eastern hills adjoining Thailand between 1988 and
1997.

"The armed forces of Myanmar continue today the noble total war against
narcotic drugs," it said.

"How could you blatantly accuse (us of supporting) the production of
narcotic drugs while (we have sacrificed) so many precious lives?"

It further warned the allegations could derail joint attempts to coordinate
the fight against drugs.

"In the midst of enjoying the bilateral cooperation in the fight against
narcotic drugs, this kind of unscrupulous accusation and reporting could
only jeopardize the spirit of good-will and cooperation."

In an unusual break in the neighbourly decorum of Thai-Myanmar relations,
furious Thai officials told the Post that Myanmar troops were helping to
funnel hundreds of millions of amphetamine pills into Thailand.

Myanmar military officers were supporting the minority United Wa State Army
(UWSA), one of the biggest drug suppliers in the Golden Triangle, which
covers parts of Thailand, Myanmar and Laos, they said.

"The (Myanmar) military has played an active role behind the UWSA's
production of speed pills along our common border," the paper quoted a high
ranking officer of the National Narcotics Operation Centre as saying.

"They have set a target to produce 200 million amphetamine tablets for
export to our country this year.

"The drug problem along the border is getting very serious because (Myanmar)
is not sincere."

He accused Yangon of being "two faced" by pledging to fight narcotics
production but acting otherwise.

Also in the Post, Thai army chief General Surayud Chulanond said after a
trip to the border with Myanmar in northwestern Thailand that Thai officials
were closely watching the activities of drugs lords.

"We are deeply concerned with the situation there, but cannot say much," he
told the paper. "It is easy to go to war, but it would be a hard fight."

Myanmar is on US government lists of so-called "narco-states" and is widely
thought to profit from drug empires which operate along its remote borders.

It is also one of the biggest heroin producers in the world along with
Afghanistan.