Britain won't ease pressure
Push for change in Rangoon
to continue
Bhanravee Tansubhapol And Agencies Britain will keep up the
pressure on Rangoon until it creates conditions for the return of refugees,
Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said yesterday.
| British Roreign Secretary Robin Cook visits a camp housing about 8,000 Karen refugees at Ban Tham Hin in Ratchaburi provincd yesterday. - Apichit Jinakul |
Mr Cook, who was visiting the Ban Tham Hin camp in Suan Phueng district, said Britain would continue to push for change in Burma in the international arena.
"I have heard and seen enough to know that the people who came here were fleeing from brutality, from military action which burnt their villages and destroyed their farms," he said.
"I assured those I met today I will leave this camp clear that our criticism [of Burma] is justified, and determined to pursue those criticisms in the international community until we secure a change of regime to enable these people to go back to their villages," he said.
A total of 7,903 mainly ethnic Karen live in this camp assisted by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and non-governmental organisations. Set up three years ago, Ban Tham Hin has no electricity, lacks sufficient radio links and is served by a poor road from Suan Phueng, according to the Foreign Ministry.
Deputy Foreign Minister Sukhumbhand Paribatra, who accompanied Mr Cook, said the visit would help spread the message that responsibility for displaced persons lies with the international community. Britain, said M.R. Sukhumbhand, appreciated Thailand's role in accommodating the more than 100,000 refugees in border camps and would do its utmost to extend support.
M.R. Sukhumbhand said the influx would persist as long as conditions in Burma remained "not normal."In talks with Karen representatives, Mr Cook promised to push Rangoon towards dialogue with ethnic minorities and opposition leader Aung San Suu KyiLater, he said Britain would persuade other member states of the European Union to join its criticism of Burma. The future of Burmese children depended on change, he said, and he would keep his promise to provide young refugees with educational help.
Refugees confirmed in interviews they would not go back to Burma so long as the junta remained in power.
Chak, 36, said: "Though there is sometimes not enough rice and no fish or vegetables, I would prefer to stay at Ban Tham Hin." Another by the name of Ampha, who said most people wanted to go back eventually, said he received 16kg of rice, 1.5kg of soya bean, 1kg of cooking oil and some salt a month. But he would like more space to be allotted for living quarters to ease current overcrowding.
Daphne Tanbaw, 79, a teacher who has been in Thailand for 12 years, hoped Mr Cook's visit would bring the necessary pressure on Rangoon to allow her to go home.
Dressing down: British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook wears a Karen shirt as he meets refugees at the Tham Hin refugee camp on the Thai side of the border. Associated Press photo
Accusing Burma's army of torching Karen homes and farms, Mr Cook used a visit to a packed refugee camp here to reinforce Britain's hawkish line on the Rangoon junta as he wrapped up a two-day visit to Thailand.
Mr Cook said he was shocked "that any government should have behaved so brutally as to drive out such friendly, gentle people".
"I have heard enough and I have seen enough to know that the people that are here only came here because they were fleeing from brutality, from military action which has burned their villages and destroyed their farms," he said.
About 8,000 refugees fled to Ban Tham Hin and other camps after Burmese troops launched a huge offensive against Karen National Union (KNU) insurgents in March 1997.
They are now packed into camps of bamboo huts nestled amid the hills of the Thai-Burma border, joining more than 100,000 refugees already in the country.
Mr Cook also moved to profit from Rangoon criticism of his tour, which has already taken in India and headed to Nepal later yesterday.
"I personally feel gratified that the Government of Burma has criticised me. It convinces me that I have been saying the right things," he said.
Britain, which ruled Burma as a colony until 1948, is one of the fiercest critics of the junta.
Mekong river neighbours sign navigation pact
YANGON, April 21 (Reuters) - China, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand have reached an agreement on commercial navigation on the Mekong river after five years of talks, state-run newspapers in Myanmar reported on Friday.
The agreement, signed in the northeastern Myanmar town of Tachilek on Thursday, was expected to promote trade and tourism in the region, officials were quoted as saying.
Myanmar to host Asian economic ministers' meeting
The meeting in Yangon, the capital of Myanmar, will start with an informal gathering of ASEAN ministers on May 1, Thai officials told Reuters. The Southeast Asian ministers would then meet their North Asian counterparts on May 2.
Japan welcomes North Korea's ARF bid
TOKYO, April 21 (AFP) -Japan's Foreign Minister Yohei Kono on Friday welcomed North Korea's bid to join the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), Asia's premier consultative body on security issues.
"Generally speaking, I feel it is welcome that North Korea comes to a multilateral forum as the country has not had so many bilateral meetings either," Kono told a regular news conference.
"However, it should meet the existing rules within the ASEAN and the ARF," the foreign minister said. "But I don't think there are so many people who have negative feelings toward North Korea's participation."
North Korea, which has been engaged in a flurry of diplomatic activity since last year, informed Association of Southeast Asian Nationsmembers earlier this month of its wish to join ARF.
ASEAN is seen as likely to approve North Korea's participation in ARF as an observer before the forum convenes in Bangkok on July 27. It sees stability on the Korean peninsula as essential to regional security.
North Korea, which sealed diplomatic relations with Italy in January, was to hold a border meeting with South Korea on Saturday to prepare for an unprecedented summit since the Korean peninsula was divided at the end of World War II.
The Australian government said last week it was considering resuming diplomatic ties with the Stalinist state, which is also courting relations with the United States, Japan, European countries, Canada and the Philippines.
Pyongyang is also seeking to join the International Monetary Fund.
Japan relaunched rapprochement talks this month with famine-hit, cash-strapped North Korea, which is demanding compensation from Tokyo for Japanese colonial rule of the peninsula from 1910 to 1945.
Tokyo's relations with Pyongyang were strained for more than a year after North Korea launched a suspected medium-range ballistic missile over Japan in August 1998.
ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
At present, the Philippines is the only ASEAN member which does not have diplomatic relations with North Korea.
Myanmar suspended formal relations after suspected North Korean agents killed senior South Korean officials, accompanying the then president Chun Doo-Hwan on a trip to Yangon, in a bomb attack in 1983.
Friday, April 21 2:47 PM SGT
Thai Cabinet To Rule On PTT, EGAT Payment Dispute -Report
SINGAPORE (Dow Jones)--The Thai Cabinet will be asked to resolve a dispute between the Petroleum Authority of Thailand (H.PTT) and the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand on whether the latter should share in the costs arising from the purchase of natural gas from Myanmar, according to Bangkok Post, a Thai business daily, Friday.
The Petroleum Authority of Thailand, or PTT, wants EGAT to share the costs arising from the failure to take delivery of gas from the Yadana gas field because the problem was caused by EGAT's delay in building the Ratchaburi power plant.
But EGAT is unwilling. A company official told Dow Jones Newswires earlier this week: "The take-or-pay deal is an issue between PTT and the Yadana group. It is a burden to be borne by PTT."
The National Energy Policy Office has summoned officials of the state energy concerns for a meeting Monday, the daily said.
Under a 25-year take-or-pay contract with the developers of the Yadana gas field, PTT was required to take a minimum of 65 million cubic feet of natural gas a day when the field came onstream in August 1998. The amount PTT was contracted to buy rose incrementally until it reached 525 million cubic feet a day in October 1999.
However, PTT was able to take delivery of only a fraction of the contracted amount because of delays in the construction of EGAT's 3,600-megawatt Ratchaburi power plant.
PTT paid the Yadana developers US$50 million in the first year of the contract and was due to pay by last month US$280 million for the second year's supply.
After an 18-month delay, the Ratchaburi power plant began operations in December, with the startup of a 200-megawatt gas turbine. EGAT put a second generator online in February, raising Ratchaburi's capacity to 900 megawatts.
The Ratchaburi commissioning has enabled PTT to increase its acceptance of Yadana gas to about 230 million cubic feet a day from about 65 million cubic feet a day in December, but that is still far from the contractual rate of 525 million cubic feet a day.
The Yadana consortium developing the gas field in Myanmar's Gulf of Mataban comprises Myanmar Exploration & Production, a unit of Total Fina SA (TOT); Myanmar Offshore Ltd., a unit of Unocal Corp. (UCL); PTTEP International Ltd.; and Myanmar Oil & Gas Enterprise.
Friday, April 21 3:09 PM SGT
Four Nations Sign Mekong River Navigation Accord
YANGON (AP)--Myanmar, Thailand, China and Laos have signed a historic pact to open a navigation route along the upper reaches of the Mekong River, official newspapers reported Friday.
The agreement, signed by transport ministers Thursday in Tachilek, on Myanmar's border with Thailand, is aimed at ending decades of political and geographic barriers preventing cross-border navigation.
Under the agreement, the four countries will allow commercial navigation across each others' borders in one year. A total of 14 ports will be affected.
The nations won't collect transit fees from vessels authorized to operate along the route, which runs 786 kilometers from Simao in China's southern Yunnan province to Luang Prabang in Laos.
Maj. Gen. Thein Sein, transport minister of Myanmar, also known as Burma, was cited in the New Light of Myanmar as saying that the accord would promote trade and improve regional stability.
The agreement, a decade in the making, is the latest step in painstakingly slow efforts to develop the Mekong and improve the lives of millions of people living in countries along its 4,200-kilometer length.
Apart from Thailand, the Mekong basin countries are some of the poorest in the world. They have been beset by decades of upheaval, confrontation and mistrust with each other.
Land transport remains limited in the region because of primitive infrastructure. The new route is expected to increase the flow of goods and people and promote tourism.
China in particular should benefit, since the agreement will open up landlocked Yunnan to its southern neighbors.
Friday, April 21 6:30 PM SGT
Squatter colony finally torn down
IT was long overdue, but police and the enforcement division of the Ampang Jaya Municipal Council finally tore down the Myanmar and Indonesian squatter colony in Taman Kosas yesterday.
While the 28 houses belonging to the Myanmar nationals were vacant as police have rounded up the 63 occupants in three raids, the Indonesians were seen trying to save their belongings as the heavy machinery got closer to their homes.
All, except one Indonesian, own either work permits or hold red identity cards and they were seen ferrying their furniture in lorries to unknown destinations.
Immigration officers who were at the scene detained an Indonesian who was found without any documents.
Council president Mohamad Nik said he will get the help of Alam Flora to discard the debris and the landowner has been asked to immediately develop the 2.6 hectare land.
"We hope the company will build houses especially low-cost ones to accommodate resettled squatters from other areas and adhere to the density guideline," he said.
Enforcement officers will also, from time to time, patrol the place to make sure no new homes are built. The 100 houses belonging to the Indonesians were equipped with electricity and water supply, raising suspicions that they may have tapped the supply elsewhere.
"We have made arrangements with Tenaga Nasional and the Waterworks Department to get clearance from us before supplying these amenities to squatter settlements," said Mohamad, adding that the council usually does not approve such requests.
Ampang deputy OCPD Supt Azmi Hashim said following The Malay Mail expose on the existence of a beggar colony in January, they have conducted three raids on the village.
"We have sent 63 Myanmar nationals, 37 of them youths and children, to the deportation centre in Port Klang," he said. Police have confirmed the majority of Myanmar people picked from the village were begging regularly in the City.
"Some showed letters purportedly from Unesco claiming to be political refugees but we do not accord such privileges to Myanmar nationals," he said.
The Malay Mail stumbled onto the settlement during a stake out on foreign beggars since December.
The growing colony has been in existence for more than four years while the Indonesians have resided there for more than 15 years.
THAM HIN (April 21) : British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook flew to Thailand's western jungle border on Thursday to meet refugees from conflict in neighbouring Myanmar and call for change in its "backward-looking, oppressive regime".
Cook delivered his message in Tham Hin refugee camp -- just 10 km (six miles) from the Myanmar frontier -- where nearly 8,000 Karen people are sheltered in crowded bamboo and tarpaulin huts nestled between jungle hills.
Most fled three years ago when their villages were destroyed by fighting in their border homelands between Myanmar government forces and Karen rebels. Around 100,000 are now refugees in Thailand.
Cook, who has used his visit to Thailand to highlight Britain's campaign to isolate Myanmar, donned a traditional red and white Karen shirt, or sayplo, and promised the refugees he would highlight their plight to the world.
"I have heard enough and seen enough to know that the people who came here... were fleeing from brutality, from military action which had burnt their villages and destroyed their farms," he told reporters.
"I assured those I met today I will leave this camp clear our criticism (of Myanmar) is justified and determined to pursue those criticisms in the international community until we secure a change of regime that will enable these people to go back to their villages," he said.
The refugees, many of whom walked for days through the jungle to escape fighting and cross into Thailand, were pessimistic about the chances of an early return home.
Camp chairman Tee Seik said he hoped Britain, the former colonial power in Myanmar, would push for even more international pressure on Myanmar.
But he also made clear the refugees expected their plight to continue when he asked Cook for help to finance long-term school and training projects for the camp, which has no electricity and depends on non-governmental organisations for much of its health, food and education projects.
Cook, who discussed Myanmar when he met Thai officials in Bangkok on Wednesday, said the signs were that Myanmar's "economy and society is disintegrating under this backward-looking, oppressive regime. The situation is getting worse."
Myanmar's government spokesman hit back at Cook on Wednesday, accusing Britain of double standards in targeting Myanmar.
"I feel gratified that the government of Burma (Myanmar) has criticised me. The fact they responded convinces me that I was saying the right things," he said.
Cook, who championed an "ethical dimension" to foreign policy when he took office in 1997, has been accused by British opposition politicians of taking a harder line on small countries like Myanmar and playing down human rights issues in big powers like Russia and China.
Britain was influential in a decision by the 15-nation European Union earlier this month to ban the export to Myanmar of "equipment that might be used for internal repression or terrorism".--Reuters
The British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook has visited the Tham Hin refugee camp on the Thai-Burmese border to draw attention to the plight of 100,000 people who have fled violence in Burma.
Many of the refugees are ethnic Karen who have been driven out by the Burmese army as it pursues Karen rebels.
|
Refugee mother receives food
supplements |
Army operations have increased since a rebel group calling itself the God's Army went over the border into Thailand in January and took control of a hospital in Ratchaburi - all 10 members were killed by Thai forces.
Britain is a long-standing critic of the Burmese regime, along with other western governments, though its policy of trying to isolate the generals in Rangoon has yet to show any discernible results.
Future looks grim
Every week hundreds of young mothers line up in the camp in western Thailand to receive a small food supplement.It is not much - just some lentils and a few eggs, to help them nurse their infants.
Most of the refugees are ethnic Karen who fled from the advancing Burmese army into Thailand.
|
A teacher training
class |
They have been here for several years, and they do not see much prospect of returning home.
Thay Lar Wah, aged 26, used to be a Karen student activist.
Three years ago, he came across the border with his wife.
He refuses to consider returning unless the international community can guarantee his safety.
The camp's vice-chairman, Daniel Zu, says the reports
they still receive from Burma are just too alarming for most of the refugees.
"It's still bad, and from bad to worse ... because we have some information
about the situation inside - forced relocation, looting, killing, torture and
raping," he says
"All these incidents happening all the time."
In limbo
Faced with almost no prospect of political change in Burma, many of the Karen
refugees are now preparing for a long stay in Thailand.
It may be possible to create a safe area inside our
land so that we can go back and remain as ordinary people |
|
Wu Lincoln, Karen community leader
|
In Tham Hin camp, they run classes to give basic teacher training, so that the children do not miss out on their education.
They are accepted by the Thai authorities though they are not really welcome.
Thailand fears that the conflict in Burma will spill over its border - all the more so since the January incursion by Karen rebels.
As a result the Thai authorities have imposed tougher restrictions on the displaced Karens.
Community leader Wu Lincoln wants Mr Cook to help to find a better alternative for the refugees.
|
Daniel Zu: sympathy with armed
struggle |
"There's quite a bit of restriction, and so people are quite uncomfortable in this area, and some families, they simply move back into their hellish holes inside Burma," he says.
"Now we are trying to talk about that with Mr Cook ... because there might be some possible solution for creating some kind of safe area inside our land so that we can go back and remain as ordinary people."
The Karen lean heavily on their strong Christian faith to see them through their difficulties.
That faith will be sorely tested with so many now displaced from their villages in Burma, and little hope of an early return.
Most still say they want a peaceful resolution to their conflict with the Burmese government.
|
Passing the time: A young woman
plays
guitar |
"We didn't chose to hold arms to have a revolution, but history pushed us to do this," he says.
Like Iraq, the Burmese military regime has shrugged off the sanctions imposed by western governments, and continued to suppress its opponents.
Its victims, who are languishing in camps all along the mountainous border with Thailand, can only hope and pray for a change of heart, among the generals in Rangoon.
The Nation April 21, 2000.
Cook blasts Burma junta for 'brutality'
BAN THAM HIN, Ratchaburi - Moved deeply by the plight of the war victims in this temporary shelter, British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook yesterday lambasted the Burmese government for its brutality and vowed to pressure the regime till there was change.
Cook said the visit to this camp, which wrapped up his tour of the kingdom, was the best opportunity for him and the people staying here to get the message across to the whole world of what they had gone through.
Moreover, he said he left the place with a greater sense of conviction that Britain's stern policy towards Rangoon was correct.
"I was shocked that any government would have behaved so brutally as to drive out such friendly, gentle people," Cook said.
Cook, who was welcomed with a colourful Karen dance and children singing gospel songs, is the most high-profile international figure to have visited the camp.
He was accompanied by Deputy Foreign Minister Sukhumbhand Paribatra as well as senior British and Thai officials.
"I have heard enough and I have seen enough to know that the people here only came because they were fleeing from brutality, from military action, which has burned their villages and destroyed their farms," he said.
Ban Tham Hin is one of a string of camps located along the 2,400-kilometre Thai-Burmese border.
It is situated deep inside a valley in Ratchaburi Province's Suan Phuan district, which is about 10km from the border and about 100km from Bangkok.
There are almost 8,000 people living in plastic-roofed shelters in this makeshift camp, most of them Karen who fled a massive Burmese offensive against the Karen National Union in March 1997.
Cook, well-known as a prominent human rights crusader, expressed deep emotional empathy throughout his tour of the camp and said he was immensely moved by the "great human spirit" he witnessed.
It was very inspiring to see people trying to carry on with their lives and taking care of their children under such circumstances, he said.
He promised the camp's committee that he would not forget their plight and would do everything he could to help them.
He stressed that Britain and Europe's hawkish policy towards the ruling junta in Rangoon would remain intact and might even become more severe.
Britain, under the present government, was determined to continue its criticism until peace and democracy were restored in Burma so the refugees could go back to their homeland, he said.
London was looking forward to a future when it could work with a different government in Burma that truly represented the desires of its people and was able to secure the safe return of the refugees.
For Cook, this unconventional trip was an important one because it would show the British people the real situation of the refugees.
The British foreign secretary's visit reflected London's concern about the situation in Burma and its adverse impact, said Sukhumbhand, adding that after Cook's trip the British government would understand the problem better.
The visit by such a prominent figure, he said, reinforced Bangkok's stance that the problem of Burmese refugees is an international one that should be tackled through global efforts.
Asked what he expected from the trip, Tee Franklin Seik, the chairman of the camp's committee, said modestly that he wanted the "international community to try by all means to restore democracy in Burma".
"I am glad and it is a great honour for us," he added, referring to his meeting with Cook in which he briefed the foreign secretary about the problems.
But most importantly, he wanted the British government, which had been the former colonial ruler, to pressure Burma and to take special note of the plight of the Karen people who had served in its 4th Battalion during the Second World War.
Tee Seik said the residents of Ban Tham Hin had never for once lost hope of returning to their homeland.
Said Paphne Tun Baw, 79, an English teacher at the camp: "Everybody must face bad and good things. Now, we live in bad conditions; one day we will live in good conditions."
BY VORAPUN SRIVORANART
The Nation
The Nation April 21, 2000.
From the Edge: Asean split on ILO penalties for Burma
The Burmese junta will suffer more humiliation and international sanctions. In June, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) will debate and decide on the penalties it will impose on the regime for failing to end the practice of forced or compulsory labour.
In an action unprecedented in the ILO’s 80year history, the Organisation’s Governing Body decided on March 27 to open a Burma motion at its annual conference in June. Among others items, the gathering will appeal to its 174 member states to review their relationship with the Burmese regime and to take appropriate measures to ensure that the regime complies with recommendations made by the ILO’s Commission of Inquiry.
In August 1998, the Commission of Inquiry, appointed by the ILO, published a report of over 6,000 pages, condemning the military rulers in Rangoon for "widespread and systematic" use of forced and compulsory labour in Burma. It also demanded that the regime to end the practices.
The Governing Body ruled in March this year that Rangoon had not yet complied with the Commission’s recommendations. Thus it invoked for the first time Article 33 of the ILO Constitution, which calls on itself to recommend to ILO members any "such action as it may deem wise and expedient to secure compliance therewith."
As Article 33 does not spell out the exact forms of penalties, the Governing Body will have to come up with recommendations to the conference. Although Burmese political activists and international trade unions would have liked tough punishment, the measures "cannot entail either expulsion from the Organisation or suspension of a Member’s voting rights". Still, the Governing Body can bring Burma’s compliance failure to the attention of the UN Security Council.
During the Governing Body’s meeting, several Burmese victims of forced labour " including those of ethnic minority groups " travelled to Geneva to give testimony about their plight. They also joined representatives of labour unions and Burmese dissident groups in lobbying governments, employers and workers to support tough actions against the regime.
The failure of Burma’s ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) to end the exaction of forced and compulsory labour has become a subject of discussions at various UN forums. Earlier this month, much to SPDC’s opposition, the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva passed a resolution noting the widespread use of forced labour and the ILO decision to take action against the regime. The European Union has recently extended for another six months a visa ban on Burmese rulers and their family members.
Western labour activists, who have been involved in filing complaints of forced labour in Burma to the ILO, believe the June conference will pass a strong penalty resolution against the Burmese military rulers. But some Asian and ILO officials told The Nation in separate interviews that it’s still too early to say what measures will be taken.
According to a senior Thai government official, the SPDC and its Asian supporters, including Japan and some Asean countries, could argue against punishing Rangoon. They might also try to lobby the ILO conference to give Burma more time to introduce reforms to its labour standards and practice.
"A lot of threats have been flying in the past few months," said the official. "As it’s nearly two months before the ILO actually decides on measures against Burma, the regime might, in the meantime, try to improve its labour practices to appease the unhappy [ILO] Western members and labour activists."
"The Burmese junta is quite wellknown for its habit of waiting to the very last minute before it gives in to international pressure," the official added.
As for Asean, the ILO conference in June will be another tough test of its unity and support for the regime. Since Burma joined Asean in 1997, the grouping has found itself pitched reluctantly between its Western allies and the Burmese pariah state.
In the past year, several Asean countries, including Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand, have grown tired of defending the regime’s poor human rights record. They are also upset by the SPDC’s intransigence to introduce even the slightest political reforms and to open a dialogue with democratic politicians.
Last June, Asean " except for Brunei which is not an ILO member and Laos which was not present " joined three other countries in voting against the passage of the first ILO resolution which condemned Burma for the poor labour practices. Interestingly, Asean employers’ and workers’ delegates took a different position and voted in support of the resolution which received 333 votes in favour, 27 against, and 47 abstentions. Each of the 174 country members have four votes - two for the government, one each for employers and workers.
As Burmese officials begins to lobby Asean members to oppose ILO penalty resolution, Asean countries are having to seriously rethink how to approach the matter.
"Although countries like Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam will certainly side with the regime, this time it’s highly likely that we’ll have a split in Asean," the Thai official warned. "Thailand might abstain from voting for the resolution. But abstention is already a good message to the Burmese regime."
By Yindee Lertcharoenchok
The Nation
Time for policy shift on Burma after 12 years of failure
Khin Maung Win is an executive committee member of the Burma Lawyers’ Council.
"Around $350-400bn of drugs money was reintegrated into the global economy over the last year," the annual Geopolitical Drugs Watch (GDW) study says.
The Paris-based group blames the opening of financial borders and increased privatisation for the vast sums involved, and says drugs money is helping to fund conflicts all over the world.
|
The US is funding Colombian
anti-drug
troops |
The report says drug production is not only on the increase in traditional countries such as Afghanistan and Colombia, but is spreading into new areas including southern Africa, Congo and Kenya.
In countries such as these, more and more laundered drugs money is being pocketed by an elite rather than benefiting local populations.
This has contributed to increased poverty and conflict over the last 15 years, the report says.
Mafia
A 200-strong global network of journalists, researchers and aid agency workers helps to produce the GDW's annual findings.
According to them, organised drugs networks in the northern hemisphere are using banks in the south as off-shore tax-havens to "clean" their drugs money.
"Criminal organisations, in particular the Russian mafia, are using the Pacific islands of Marshall, Niue, Samoa and above all Vanuatu as a money-laundering paradise," the report says.
Drugs barons, from both north and south, invest their illegal profits in traditional southern markets - from gold and diamonds to cocoa and coffee - drawing in governments and officials.
Conflicts
The report also lists around 30 conflicts around the world where drugs play a major role - the Basque armed separatist group ETA is listed along with Afghanistan, Colombia and Angola.
|
Hashish and synthetic drug use is
shooting up among
Basques |
ETA - which has an annual budget of between $15-20bn according to GDW estimates - has been boosting its coffers by drug dealing since the early 1980s when arms and drugs trading became inextricably linked, the report says.
It adds that hashish and synthetic drug use is now nearly twice as high in the Basque country as in the rest of Spain.
The GDW - subsidised by the EU and the French Government - also accuses the EU of not doing enough to tackle drugs networks in countries such as Burma, Morocco and Turkey.
The report coincides with an announcement by the United Nations that it is to conduct a new survey of heroin abuse in Pakistan, which is believed to have the highest addict population in the world.
Friday, April 21, 2000
BURMA
KAY JOHNSON in Phnom Penh
Convicted of illegally entering Cambodia, the two self-styled rebels were later released and are due to be returned to their base in Thailand - with help from the United Nations.