NEWS ; U.S. - No Evidence Myanmar

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Subject: NEWS ;  U.S. - No Evidence Myanmar Government In Drug Trade

U.S.: No Evidence Myanmar Government In Drug Trade
07:48 a.m. Feb 27, 1999 Eastern

By Sutin Wannabovorn

BANGKOK, Thailand (Reuters) - Myanmar is the world's largest source of
illicit opium and heroin but there is no evidence its military
government as an institution is involved with drugs, the United States
said Saturday.

The State Department's Bureau for International Narcotics and Law
Enforcement said Myanmar's opium production fell by 26 percent last
year, due partly to government efforts to eradicate the crop.

Some 130,300 hectares (321,700 acres) were under opium cultivation in
Myanmar in 1998, capable of yielding up to 1,750 tons of opium gum,
the bureau estimated in a report.

This was Myanmar's lowest production for 10 years, it said.

It takes about 10 tons of opium gum to produce one ton of heroin,
narcotics experts say.

But the U.S. report criticized Myanmar's ruling State Peace and
Development Council (SPDC) for failing to confront powerful drug
traffickers in the country and for making ``little if any effort
against money laundering.''

``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 corrupt army personnel posted in outlying areas, are
either involved in the drug business or are paid to allow the drug
business to be conducted by others,'' the report said.

Most of Myanmar's opium and heroin comes from the notorious Golden
Triangle region on the borders of Myanmar, Laos and Thailand, parts of
which are controlled by insurgent ethnic groups involved in the drugs
trade.

Opponents of Myanmar have accused it of involvement with drug
traffickers and pointed to its protection of well-known drug barons
such as Khun Sa and Lo Hsing-han. Khun Sa resides in Yangon and Lo is
involved in business in Myanmar, diplomats say.

The United States, along with most major European countries, boycotted
an Interpol drugs conference in Yangon this week after criticizing
Myanmar's ruling generals for human rights abuses and taking
insufficient steps against the drugs industry.

The Myanmar military said the boycott would hamper the fight against
the drugs trade and claimed it had taken substantial measures against
opium and heroin production.

Myanmar says its opium output totaled 680 tons in 1998 and has
forecast production this year would fall to half that.

The United Nations recently issued figures in line with the U.S.
estimates and said the recent decline in opium production was mainly
due to adverse weather conditions and had less to do with government
anti-drugs efforts.

But the U.S. report said the Myanmar government had ''engaged in
significant opium crop eradication efforts in 1998.''

``While the extent of the drug threat from Burma (Myanmar) remained
high, law enforcement efforts, particularly on seizures of
amphetamine, show some improvement, and opium production during 1998
showed a significant decline,'' it said.

``Burmese counter-narcotic efforts in 1998 made progress with regard
to eradication, increased methamphetamine seizures, and destruction of
heroin refineries,'' it said.

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