|
WIRE:02/24/2000 02:51:00 ET
INTERVIEW-Thailand rejects Myanmar opium claims CHIANG MAI, Thailand, Feb 24 (Reuters) - The head of Thailand's anti-drugs agency in the
northen Golden Triangle region has dismissed claims by neighbouring
Myanmar that a recent relocation of opium growers was designed to cut
drugs production.
Thamnu Sirisingha, director of Thailand's northern Narcotic Control Office, told Reuters trafficking from neighbouring Myanmar was rising and esd likely to continue to increase due to the relocation of Myanmar ethnic Wa farmers closer to Thailand. Last month, Myanmar's military government heralded the forced move of some 50,000 Wa opium growers from northern Myanmar to closer towards the Thai border as a victory for drugs suppression and said the farmers had now left the drugs business. It said Wa hill farmers and their dependents were being trucked more than 160 km (100 miles) south from homes along the Chinese border to grow longans, a type of tropical fruit. But Thamnu saw the relocation quite differently. "The mass relocation plan of the Wa only means shifting the opium production areas from the China border to the Thai border," Thamnu said in an interview at his headquarters in the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai. TRAFFICKING FROM MYANMAR INCREASING "Narcotics trafficking from (Myanmar) Wa areas is more active and increasing," Thamnu added. He said Myanmar's United Wa State Army (UWSA) had moved its opium production closer to the Thai border to take advantage of logistics supplies for cultivation available in Thailand and Thailand's better roads for drugs transportation. He said Thai narcotics officials also suspected the UWSA was resuming opium cultivation in areas that used to be controlled by Khun Sa, a former opium warlord who gave himself up to Myanmar troops five years ago. "We believe the Wa people will again grow opium in the areas that used to be under the control of Khun Sa," Thamnu said. International narcotics agencies accuse the UWSA, which signed a peace deal with the Myanmar government in 1990, of active involvement in narcotics trafficking throughout the Golden Triangle, where the borders of Thailand, Myanmar and Laos meet. The United Nations Drug Control Programme estimates that about 1,200 tonnes of opium was produced in the Golden Triangle in 1999. Thamnu said Thailand had almost managed to eradicate its own opium production, thanks to an intense crop substitution regime. Combined efforts of the Thai army, police and drugs officials had cut Thai opium output to just 500 kg (1,102 pounds) a year from more than 100 tonnes until 1984, he said. "TOTALLY IN CONTROL" "At this moment I can say we are totally in control of opium production in our territory and have reduced output by more than 99.5 percent," Thamnu said. Since 1984, Thailand has made a concerted effort to stamp out production of opium, from which heroin is made, and has enforced crop substitution in its mountainous north. Thamnu said the Thai drugs task force had destroyed more than 800 hectares (1,977 acres) of opium poppy fields in 1999. He estimated that another 640 hectares of poppy fields had been in use in Thailand last year but said some of these fields had already been eradicated this year. Drugs officials estimate that about 1.8 kg (four pounds) of opium gum can be produced from one hectare of poppies. It takes about 10 tonnes of opium gum to make one tonne of heroin. Thamnu said that in 1984, the first year of the Thai opium eradication project, only 5.47 percent of nearly 9,000 hectares of opium fields were destroyed. Last year, more than 60 percent of 1,440 hectares of targeted opium fields were hit. He said Thai forces had destroyed more than 500 hectares of opium poppy fields since December 1999. "Our concern is that we can put controls on Thai output, but we have an uphill task to stop the flood of narcotics from our neighbours," he said. Thursday, February 24 4:19 PM SGT
Fujian governor vows to rid Chinese province of corruptionFUZHOU, China, Feb 24 (AFP) -
The governor of China's scandal-tainted province of Fujian vowed to root out the rampant corruption eating his government, but ruled out political reform to confront the problem. Despite recognizing the difficulty of fighting dishonesty within the one party communist system, Xi Jinping made it clear that reform was not necessary even though Chinese President Jiang Zemin has called the ongoing anti-corruption struggle a matter of "life and death" for the party. "Building a system of supervision is very important because power that is based on self-control is very hard to restrain," Xi said in an exclusive interview with AFP. He said the party would work within the one party structure and the party's system of political consultation and "supervision by the masses" despite the system's glaring lack of success. "The people's government must never forget the word the 'people' and we must do everything we can to serve the people, but to get all the government officials to do this is not easy, in some places this is not done very well and in other places it is done very badly," Xi admitted. He refused to comment in detail on the huge 80 billion yuan (10 billion dollar) smuggling case in Fujian's booming coastal city of Xiamen. The case has rocked the nation and led to a 10-month secretive investigation carried out by a 400-member team sent from party central in Beijing. The case has been termed the biggest-ever smuggling racket in China and has reportedly involved hundreds of high-level Xiamen city and Fujian provincial officials and prominent businessmen. "This case is in the process of being dealt with now and when it is completed the results will be announced to the outside world," Xi said. The 47-year old governor, appointed last August after the case erupted, said high custom tariffs set by the central government had nothing to do with the huge case despite the high prices of imported goods in China and the relative health of Fujian's state-owned industries which do not need the extensive tariff protections that other state-run industries around the country need. "The matter of the Xiamen case is a criminal question and is completely different from local perceptions of central government (tax) policy," he said. Senior officials implicated in the scandal -- according to Chinese and foreign press reports -- include; Xiamen vice mayor Lan Fu, Xu Ganlu, China's top immigration official; Zhuang Rushun, deputy head of the Fujian provincial public security bureau; Yang Qinxian, head of Xiamen's city customs, Xiamen vice mayors Lan Fu and Zhao Keming and Xiamen vice party secretaries Liu Feng and Zhang Zongxu. Officials in Xiamen also refused to reveal details of the investigation, but confirmed that the above officials did not appear in the annual city legislative meeting which ended Sunday. "I myself do not know what is happening with the investigation, but I can say these people did not appear at the Xiamen People's Congress meeting last week," Lu Yonghui of the municipal party's organization department told AFP. The alleged mastermind of the case, Lai Changxing, was still believed to be on the run, Hong Kong newspapers said Wednesday despite earlier reports that he had been arrested in Myanmar. Chinese police have issued an arrest warrent for Lai and called on Interpol to assist in a global search, the Chinese-language Sun daily said quoting Beijing sources. Lai is accused of running an 80 billion yuan scandal and was an influential businessmen in south China, running real estate businesses and even bringing to Xiamen a competitive first division soccer club. Hong Kong papers had previously reported that he was arrested in Myanmar on February 5, although Beijing officials said they had no knowledge of this. Former Xiamen vice mayor Lan Fu, who has also been implicated in China's biggest smuggling scandal, recently surrendered to Chinese officials in Australia and was returned to China, according to reports. Thursday, February 24 6:40 PM SGT National: 200 illegals detained in SepangSEPANG, Wed. - Police detained 200 illegal immigrants, mostly Indonesians, during an operation in several areas in the district here last night. District police chief Assistant Commissioner Shukri Dahlan said today that apart from the Indonesians, six Bangladeshis and several Myanmars were also picked up. The hour-long operation which involved several teams of police officers and men, began about midnight.
|