Burma Out! JUNTA FRIENDS IN 'HIGH'

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Subject: Burma Out!  JUNTA FRIENDS IN 'HIGH' PLACES

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Burma-Heroin
THE JUNTA'S FRIENDS IN 'HIGH' PLACES
Burmese military rulers faces uncomfortable revelations
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FRANKFURTER RUNDSCHAU
Wednesday, 10 November 1999
http://www.fr-aktuell.de/english/401/t401003.htm
By Juergen Dauth

 Bangkok - Film sequences shot by Thai investigators appear to have proved
once and for all the long-standing suspicion that Burma's ruling military
junta have friends among the world's most unscrupulous drugs barons.

 The film, shot by Thai investigators shows the military junta's first
secretary and military intelligence chief, General Khin Nyunt, in close
congress with one of the world's most wanted drug barons, Wei Hueh-kang.

 Wei has a price on his head: two million dollars, to be exact, which
America's Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) says it will pay out to
anyone who delivers him up for prosecution.

 Wei, general in the United Wa State Army, a force fighting for the rights
of a minority people on the Thai-Burmese border, is the Golden Triangle's
new drugs baron. His predecessor Khun Sa, president of the Shan State Army,
has apparently now retired from active dealings.

 The DEA is convinced that Wei is "South East Asia's leading drug smuggler
- and perhaps the world's."

 According to several reports, Wei was once a liberation fighter, fighting
for the independence of the Wa minority in Burma. But then - in one of the
junta's so-called pacification campaigns in the capital Rangoon, Wei
renounced his central goal of a separate Wa state.

 His pledge of fealty did not go unrewarded. In return, the generals
invested him with the rights to trade in opium with southern China. Wei
formed alliances and signed treaties with other minorities in the border
area to Yunnan and soon became the largest trader in unprocessed opium in
the Golden Triangle.

 His most important customer was the unchallenged opium king Khun Sa. Khun
Sawhose laboratories for turning raw opium poppies into heroin are deep in
the jungles on the Thai-Burmese border. Together, Kun Sa and Wei - both
ethnic Chinese - came to control the largest segment of the worldwide trade
in heroin.

 Then, three years ago reports spoke of Khun Sa finally retiring after
years of successful dealings. The first rumours indicated that his
"services" had bought him the right to live in Rangoon. But then proof
started accumulating at Bangkok's anti-drugs agency headquarters that Wei
and Khun Sa had merely split their lucrative operations into separate areas.

 Khun Sa, it seems, had only withdrawn to Rangoon to pursue his business
interests: that of legally obtaining chemicals required in the production
of heroin. Wei took over the laboratories and today is reckoned to be the
largest supplier of amphetamines on the world market.

 One of his most important markets is Thailand where the consumption of
amphetamines and heroin has risen so dramatically that the government has
declared the drug situation to be a national disaster. Thailand currently
has 1.8 million people withdrawing from the drug. The amphetamines produced
in Wei's kitchens in Burma also reach the world market through China and
Cambodia.

 It has always been suspected that the drug barons receive active support
from Burma's generals. The junta is also accused of financing part of its
military budget through drugs. But evidence for this last suspicion was
always lacking. Until now, that is.

 The Thai drug investigators now have a witness in technicolor. Border
police filmed the junta's strongman, Khin Nyunt, after he arrived on a tour
of inspection at Wei's new headquarters in the jungle.

 Both Thailand and the United States have called on Rangoon to extradite
the drug barons, but repeated requests have always met with refusal. The
People's Republic of China has also issued a warrant for Wei's arrest.

 The junta is currently investing heavily in the infrastructure in Wei's
fief on the Thai border, and have plans to build a dam there. In Bangkok,
observers are convinced that the projects are being financed with drug
money.

Copyright  Frankfurter Rundschau 1999

Follow the plea by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, and the appreciations 
of HH the Dalai Lama, the Shan Democratic Union,  film maker John 
Pilger, the Free Burma Coalition,  author Alan Clements, Dennis 
Skinner MP, Tony Benn MP, Ann Clwyd MP, Congress-woman  
Maxine Waters,  Socialist Workers' Party,  Dr and Welsh rugby  
star JPR Williams, Hendrix  bassist Noel Redding,  S African jazz 
pianist Abdullah Ibrahim,  All Burma Students Democratic 
Organisation,  All Burma Students Democratic Front, Tasmanian 
Trades & Labour Council,  SACP (South African Communist Party),
COSATU,  Tim Gopsill, editor.  The.Journalist@xxxxxxxxxx, and 
numerous others.   

Supporting a Genuine war upon drugs and human rights abuse.
Sydney 2000 : Burma Out! 
http://www.mihra.org/2k/burma.htm

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http://www.mihra.org / policy.office@xxxxxxxxx 

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Union Action http://www.mihra.org/2k/Union.htm

Founded during UN50. Mihra's roots are in music and anti-racism and 
was first in line in calling for a sports boycott of Burma for the Sydney
2000 Olympic Games. Mihra also advances protection of creators rights 
in an anti-cultural market, currently 93.8% monopolised by the recording  
/ publishing Grand Cartel. 

Major solo work "Piece of Mind". With orchestra, Holland 69. same  
time as Beatles "Abbey Road".   http://onlinetv.com/rogerbunn.html
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