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BURMA RELATED NEWS - OCT - 12, 2000. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HEADLINE
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SMH - UN says its envoy will be able to meet Suu Kyi
Reuters - Myanmar's Suu Kyi relents,
meets U.N. envoy
Reuters - ASEAN monitors Suu Kyi in
Myanmar, won't mediate
Reuters - INTERVIEW-U.N. says winning
war against drugs
AFP - UN envoy holds second meeting
with Aung San Suu Kyi in Myanmar
AFP - ASEAN information ministers
meet amid efforts over common IT policy
AFP - Internet the key to stopping SE
Asia drug trade: US analysts
AP - Earthquake Rattles Myanmar
Province
AP - Singapore Supermarket Chain
Plans Move Into China, India
AP - Thai Premier Calls For Global
Cooperation To Fight Drugs
Kyodo - U.S. offers cautious praise for Myanmar counterdrug efforts
The Times of India - Regional leaders seek global effort to fight `ice'
Bkk Post - Burma asks for
understanding
Bkk Post - Wa not likely to
change
The Nation - 'Amphetamine revolution' just beginning - US
The Nation - Letters - Burmese top
brassnext on hit list?
BBC - UN envoy meets Suu Kyi
again
SCMP - Junta 'not tackling menace' The Sydney Morning
Herald
Oct 12, 2000. UN says its envoy will be able to meet Suu Kyi By CRAIG SKEHAN, Herald Correspondent in Bangkok A United Nations special envoy to Burma will be able to
meet the democracy campaigner Ms Aung San Suu Kyi despite the military junta's
crackdown on dissidents, a UN spokesman said yesterday.
"I can confirm that a meeting has been arranged with
leaders of the National League for Democracy [NLD], including Ms Suu Kyi," the
spokesman said.
He declined to give details of the venue.
The NLD had said it was unwilling for meetings to take
place with Mr Razali Ismail, a Malaysian diplomat, while Ms Suu Kyi remained
under house arrest.
A senior party official in Bangkok argued that any meeting
with Mr Razali should take place at the NLD headquarters in
Rangoon.
"The NLD office is now devoid of first-line leaders
because they are under house detention," said Dr Sann Aung, a Bangkok based NLD
official.
Some "second-line" NLD leaders who had gone to the party
offices in recent days had been taken to interrogation centres and threatened
with arrest.
"So, in essence the NLD is not being allowed to run their
activities," Dr Sann Aung said.
Ms Suu Kyi has been under house arrest since September 21,
when security authorities stopped her from visiting supporters in the northern
city of Mandalay. Her phone lines have been cut and she has been denied
visitors, despite persistent attempts by United States and British diplomats to
see her.
At the weekend a senior NLD official, U Tin Oo, was freed
from a prison camp, but he is still under house arrest.
The UN special envoy met Burma's head of state, General
Than Shwe, yesterday following talks this week with the intelligence chief,
General Khin Nyunt, and the Foreign Minister, Mr Win Aung, as well as the
ministers for health and home affairs.
This is Mr Razali's second official visit to Burma, and it
had been hoped that Malaysia's history of close diplomatic ties with Rangoon
would increase his
influence. However, the continuing crackdown on dissidents has
further dampened prospects of progress towards internal political dialogue on
the restoration of democracy.
WIRE:10/11/2000 08:35:00
ET
UPDATE 1-Myanmar's Suu Kyi relents, meets U.N. envoy YANGON, Oct 11 (Reuters) - The U.N. special envoy to Myanmar met
opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi at her home in Yangon on Wednesday, ending
more than two weeks of isolation for the Nobel peace laureate, who is under
house arrest.
The envoy, Malaysia"s Razali Ismail, spent two hours at
Suu Kyi"s residence, accompanied by local U.N. officials. He made no comment to
reporters outside, and left by car.
Diplomats in Yangon had earlier said Suu Kyi would not
agree to meet Razali, to protest at the government"s restrictions on her. She
has been confined to her home with her telephone cut and diplomatic access
barred since September 22. It was not clear what prompted Suu Kyi to change her
mind.
A United Nations source in Yangon said Razali was likely
to meet her again on Thursday. "I am going to see all important people relevant
to my duty as the special envoy," Razali told Reuters on Wednesday ahead of the
visit to Suu Kyi"s house. Razali is on a four-day visit to Myanmar to try to
ease rising tension between the military government and the pro-democracy
opposition. His visit ends on Thursday.
Earlier on Wednesday, Razali met Senior General Than Shwe,
chairman of the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC). His visit has
also included meetings with the powerful Lieutenant-General Khin Nyunt,
Secretary One of the SPDC and head of military intelligence, as well as
representatives of some of Myanmar"s ethnic groups.
CRACKDOWN ON OPPOSITION
Myanmar has faced mounting international condemnation this
year over its treatment of Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD),
which won elections in 1990 by a landslide but has never been allowed to govern.
Senior NLD officials are confined to their homes, and NLD Vice Chairman U Tin Oo
has been in detention since the government blocked a bid by Suu Kyi to travel
from Yangon to Mandalay by rail last month.
Diplomats have not been allowed to visit Suu Kyi, but the
government indicated earlier this week it would allow Razali to see her.
International anger at Myanmar has threatened to derail a
planned meeting of Southeast Asian and European Union foreign ministers in Laos
in December. Razali was appointed U.N. special envoy in April, and visited
Myanmar from June 29 to July 3.
Ismail"s predecessor, Alvaro De Soto, visited Myanmar
several times to mediate between the SPDC and Suu Kyi"s National League for
Democracy (NLD), but his visits produced no tangible result. (With additional
reporting by Andrew Marshall in Bangkok)
WIRE:10/12/2000 04:14:00 ET
UPDATE 1-ASEAN monitors Suu Kyi in Myanmar, won't mediate HANOI, Oct 12 (Reuters) - The Association of Southeast Asian
Nations said on Thursday it was monitoring the situation in Myanmar, where
opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been confined to her home, but had no
intention of mediating. "At various levels, ASEAN members are keeping an eye on
what"s happening in Myanmar," the 10-member group"s secretary-general Rodolfo
Severino told Reuters.
"But there is no question of mediation or anything like
that." However, Thailand"s Supatra Masdit, a minister in the prime minister"s
office, told Reuters she was for mediation and the issue should be discussed at
Foreign Ministry level. "I support it...because I think it"s good to have
someone as a mediator, and Thailand -- we are neighbours (with Myanmar), we have
many things -- we have our own standpoint, not really following everything."
Both Supatra and Severino spoke on the sidelines of a
meeting of ASEAN information ministers and deputies in Hanoi. Severino defended
ASEAN"s policy of non-interference in the internal affairs of member states,
saying it was the basis of the whole U.N. charter and the international system.
Asked if Thailand was taking a different position, he said: "Well, I don"t know,
if you asked them whether they want to scuttle non-intervention, that"s to deal
with the entire international community." "NO PRESSURE ON ASEAN" "I don"t think
there"s any pressure to depart from it -- can you imagine a world where
everybody interferes with everyone else?"
ASEAN agreed in July in Bangkok to form a "troika" of
three members to try to help resolve political and security disputes. Suu Kyi,
who leads Myanmar"s opposition National League for Democracy (NLD), has been
restricted to her home with her telephone cut and diplomatic access barred since
September 21.
Senior NLD officials have also been confined to their
homes after the military government blocked a bid by Suu Kyi to travel from
Yangon to Mandalay by rail last month. Myanmar officials at the Hanoi meeting
said Suu Kyi had been asked to stay in her home as a security measure and when
she was allowed to leave would depend on prevailing conditions.
"For the the time being for the security measure, we have
requested her to stay in her house," an official of Myanmar"s Information
Ministry told Reuters. "It is the right of every government to give its people
security, to give the country security," added Deputy Information Minister
Brigadier-General Aung Thein. Asked when the 1991 Nobel Peace laureate would be
allowed to leave her house, he said: "This depends on the conditions."
Myanmar has faced mounting international criticism this
year over its treatment of Suu Kyi and the NLD which won election in 1990 by a
landslide but has never been allowed to govern. Suu Kyi met U.N. special envoy
Razali Ismail at her Yangon home on Wednesday. Ismail has also met military
leaders.
WIRE:10/12/2000 07:49:00
ET
INTERVIEW-U.N. says winning war against drugs BANGKOK, Oct 12 (Reuters) - The man in charge of the world"s fight
against illegal drugs said on Thursday the war was being won and he believed
world production of opium and cocaine could be eliminated within the next eight
years.
Pino Arlacchi, who took on the mafia in his native Italy
and is now executive director of the United Nations Office for Drug Control and
Crime Prevention, told Reuters: "We are winning. And we have to believe that we
can win and eliminate drugs." He said strong progress was being made on cocaine
and heroin, and while the situation concerning synthetic drugs was less
encouraging this did not change the overall positive picture.
Arlacchi faces a David and Goliath struggle. His agency
has an annual budget of around $70 million against the $400 billion estimated
annual turnover of the drugs trade. But Arlacchi said in an interview that
despite his modest resources, he was confident that a 1998 U.N. pledge to
eradicate cultivation of the opium poppy and coca bush by 2008 could be
fulfilled ahead of schedule.
"The results have been beyond any expectations. For the
first time, the overall surface under cultivation of illegal crops in the world
has decreased substantially," he said. "It has decreased by 15 percent. This is
the result of our strategy just two years after it was launched. This is an
unprecedented result." Arlacchi said cocaine production had been largely
eliminated in Bolivia, and opium production almost eradicated in Vietnam, with
strong progress also in Laos and Myanmar.
MORE GLOOMY ON ECSTASY
But Arlacchi said the world faced a growing threat from
synthetic drugs like ecstasy and amphetamines, with consumption growing fast in
Asia and still at a high level in the West. "The picture is not so positive when
we look at the synthetic drugs. The picture is quite gloomy," he said. He said
consumption of amphetamines was in its first growth phase in Asia, and was
expected to stabilise, following the pattern seen in Europe.
"There will be a levelling off if the proper and correct
measures are adopted and taken," he said. Arlacchi was in Bangkok for an
international conference on narcotics discussing strategies for making the
Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) a drug-free area by 2015. He
insisted that action could be taken to reduce drug production in "rogue" nations
like Afghanistan and Myanmar without having to provide support for the regimes
there. "We know how to work in these countries while avoiding giving support to
authoritarian, undemocratic regimes that are enemies of human rights," Arlacchi
said. Afghanistan and Myanmar are the world"s leading suppliers of heroin, and
Myanmar is also a major source of amphetamines.
FIGHTING FOR RIGHTS
Arlacchi said his strategy in fighting heroin and cocaine
was based on persuading farmers to grow legal crops instead. This could be done
by education, as well as by providing incentives such as better healthcare,
infrastructure and communications. "We must simply show them that they can make
just as much money from alternative cultivation," he said. "Farmers can make
much more money cultivating wheat or growing fruit, vegetables and so on. Most
of the money is appropriated by traffickers who exploit the tremendous mark up
of the heroin trade. Farmers get very little for the opium poppy."
But as well as offering the carrot of better income,
countries also had to threaten farmers with the stick of stern action if they
failed to give up drug production, he said. "We learned by our previous failures
that a limited amount of coercion is necessary," Arlacchi said. He said his
fight against drugs, both when battling the mafia and in his U.N. role, was
motivated by the basic fact that they were dangerous to health and encouraged
violence and corruption.
"We should not accept drugs as a component of everyday
life," he said. "We never accepted diseases. We fought against diseases, and we
should fight against drugs." He said suggestions that the war on drugs was doing
more harm than good, by destroying the livelihoods of farmers, damaging the
environment and threatening human rights, were "deeply unfair." "The fight
against drugs is a fight for human rights," he said. "We represent the 30
million people addicted to heroin and cocaine, and another 30 million who...have
their brains damaged forever by synthetic drugs. We fight for their human
rights."
Thursday, October 12 2:28 PM SGT
UN envoy holds second meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi in Myanmar YANGON, Oct 12 (AFP) - UN special envoy Razali Ismail held a
second meeting with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi Thursday on the final day
of a visit to Myanmar aimed at breaking the deadlock between the opposition and
the ruling junta.
The veteran Malaysian diplomat met the National League for
Democracy (NLD) leader at her Yangon home at 8.30 am (0200 GMT) and left at
10.45 am (0415 GMT), an opposition source told AFP.
She was the only NLD member present, the source
said.
Razali then left the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate's house to
hold a final meeting with Foreign Minister Win Aung.
He was due to leave for Singapore at O605 GMT on a Silk
Air flight.
Razali arrived in Yangon Monday on his second trip to the
country under UN auspices.
His four-day visit came against the backdrop of a renewed
crackdown on the NLD despite fierce international criticism.
Razali met with Aung San Suu Kyi on Wednesday following
his talks with the head of the military junta, Than Shwe, and First Secretary
Khin Nyunt, head of intelligence.
During that first meeting, Aung San Suu Kyi presented
Razali with a list of 67 NLD members who have been held in Yangon's Insein
prison since being rounded up at the capital's railway station on September 22,
an opposition source told AFP Thursday.
She knew that many others were being held but she did not
know exactly who, the source said.
Aung San Suu Kyi and the other members of the party's
Central Executive Committee were placed under de facto house arrest after she
was prevented from travelling to the northern town of Mandalay to investigate
reports of a crackdown on NLD offices.
Over 100 party supporters who had gathered at the station
were also rounded up and taken to Yangon's Insein prison.
The NLD leader "deplored these unlawful acts by the
government," the source said.
A government source denied rumours that NLD deputy leader
Tin Oo, who was taken to Ye Mon prison north of the capital, had been
released.
Previously sources close to the NLD had said Aung San Suu
Kyi might not even want to meet the envoy unless restrictions on the rest of the
party leadership's movements were removed.
But no indications have been given that the restrictions
would be lifted shortly.
During his first trip in July, Razali apparently made
little headway in kickstarting relations between the two sides.
But Razali's talks with Than Shwe was the first time the
diplomat or his predecessors had met with the junta's head.
Analysts in Yangon said the appointment, along with the
red carpet treatment accorded to Razali on his arrival in Yangon Monday,
indicated the junta had not immediately dismissed his visit.
Both the junta and the UN maintained a strict media
blackout on the agenda or other details of the talks.
UN spokesman Fred Eckhard's only comment last week was
that Razali would discuss "continuing violations of human rights in Myanmar" and
would report back to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.
Khun Tun Oo, the chairman of the ethnic Shan National
League for Democracy (SNLD) party, told AFP that he felt that "Razali's visit
had been positive and a move in the right direction."
The SNLD polled the second largest number of votes in the
1990 general elections which were won by the NLD but subsequently annulled by
the military junta.
Thursday, October 12 7:18 PM SGT
ASEAN information ministers meet amid efforts over common IT policy HANOI, Oct 12 (AFP) - Information ministers from the Association
of Southeast Asian Nations launched two days of talks here Thursday amid efforts
to forge a common IT policy despite huge differences among member
states.
ASEAN secretary general Rodolfo Severino said the
organization was keen to help poorer members develop their information
technology industries.
But he acknowledged some were loath to abandon the tight
controls they have traditionally maintained over information despite the
mounting pace of technological change.
"We will try to help those countries that are behind in
terms of expertise so they will not get further behind," he said.
"But it's up to each country ... we can't force
anyone."
Host nation Vietnam is among those ASEAN members which
have sought to retain a tight control over information, even as they have
developed new software parks in a bid to attract investment from IT
firms.
The authorities here continue to operate firewalls on the
Internet which block access to websites they find objectionable, such as those
of the emigre opposition.
"Information and the right to access to information have
become an urgent need for all nations," Vietnam's Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen
Manh Cam told delegates in his opening address.
But he added that this should not come at the expense of
either "national sovereignty" or the "will of the people."
"We need to join efforts to seek effective solutions for
concerted management under a mutually agreed order that conforms to the will of
our peoples and to the respect for national sovereignty," he said.
At a meeting in Thailand last week, ASEAN economic
ministers agreed a framework agreement for development of the Internet as part
of the organisation's efforts to keep pace with its northern neighbours as China
moves towards World Trade Organization membership.
The agreement, which is due to be signed in Singapore next
month, sets out a common policy framework for the Internet as well as measures
to strengthen infrastructure and human resources, Severino said.
The information ministers were also due to discuss
measures to improve ASEAN's image amid mounting criticism of its ineffectiveness
in the face of the continuing crisis in Myanmar.
The meeting would "approve important projects to enhance
ASEAN's image .... and encourage the role of ASEAN as an increasingly
influential regional grouping in the Asia-Pacific region and the world," Cam
said.
Thursday, October 12 4:27 PM SGT
Internet the key to stopping SE Asia drug trade: US analysts BANGKOK, Oct 12 (AFP) - The Internet may be the key to slowing the
flourishing trade in heroin and amphetamines in Southeast Asia, senior US drugs
analysts said.
"The Internet may become a valuable weapon in the effort
against artifical-type stimulants (ATS) abuse and trafficking," said Thomas
Wersto, a drugs analyst at the US Department of State, at a conference here on
achieving a drug-free Southeast Asia.
The Internet "offers governments the opportunity to
encourage greater public participation in campaigns against drug traffickers,"
he said.
"Government-run websites potentially can allow individuals
the opportunity to anonymously inform on local traffickers and
producers."
"Individuals who otherwise would be too scared to report
to the police the activity of a drug trafficker in their neighborhood have the
opportunity to do so anonymously and safely."
The Internet also can be a vehicle for drug education,
since it is a cheap and easy way to reach a broad range of people, Wersto
said.
ATS, also known as synthetic drugs, is a class of
narcotics that includes ecstasy and amphetamines, which have became a scourge of
Southeast Asia.
The Thai military estimated some 600 million amphetamine
pills flooded Thailand last year from Myanmar, and some analysts have estimated
that the number of amphetamine users in Thailand could double in the next five
years.
US drug officials had previously said that the United Wa
State Army (UWSA), the main producer of amphetamines in Myanmar, is stepping up
its production of the drugs.
Myanmar is reportedly one of the world's major sources for
amphetamines.
While Wersto touted the potential benefits of the
Internet, he also warned that the Web could be "a dual-edged sword."
For now, "the Internet is giving some of those involved in
the narcotics industry an edge," he said.
The recipes for producing amphetamines and setting up
mobile drug labs are easily available on the Internet, thereby allowing people
with limited resources to easily log-on and access this dangerous information,
he said.
Also, drug producers and consumers are reportedly
increasingly communicating with each other via the World Wide Web.
The three-day conference is tasked with coming up with
ways to eradicate drugs in the ASEAN bloc by 2015.
Thursday, October 12 1:05 PM SGT
Earthquake Rattles Myanmar Province YANGON, Myanmar (AP) - An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.3 shook
a remote northwestern province bordering India, but there were no reports of
damage or casualties, officials said Thursday.
The quake occurred Wednesday at about 4:15 p.m. and was
felt by residents of Homalin and Mawalaik towns, the seismological department
said. The area was sparsely populated, the agency said.
A magnitude 5 earthquake can cause considerable damage in
populated areas.
Homalin is 560 miles northwest of Yangon and Mawalaik is
about 480 miles northwest of the capital.
Thursday, October 12 5:35 PM SGT
Singapore Supermarket Chain Plans Move Into China, India SINGAPORE (AP)--Singapore's largest supermarket chain
NTUC Fairprice plans to open stores in China and India within the next year, the
company said Thursday.
The Singapore company is currently negotiating with one
party in each of the two countries, NTUC Fairprice spokeswoman Sheryl Sim said.
In its India and China ventures, NTUC Fairprice hopes to
form three-way deals. These would involve a local partner in the host country
and an international player, who is either an "international investor or a
supermarket operator," Sim said.
The local partner would take a 40% stake, with the
remaining 60% will be split between NTUC Fairprice and the international
partner, Sim added.
The Singapore company plans to invest an initial 20
million Singapore dollars ($1=SGD1.7524) in the project.
It would likely open "four or five" outlets at first, and
then expand after the first ones become self-funding, Sim said.
NTUC Fairprice currently runs seven outlets in Indonesia
under a management contract that gives it an option to buy.
It formerly ran seven outlets in neighboring Malaysia in
partnership with Malaysia's Hong Leong group, but pulled out in 1996 after
incurring losses of about S$4 million.
The Singapore company also had to close its one outlet in
Myanmar after its import license was withdrawn by Myanmar authorities.
NTUC Fairprice, which has 80 outlets in Singapore, is a
cooperative organization run by the city-state's labor federation, the National
Trades Union Congress.
The company is not publicly listed, and any profits go to
members, Sim said.
Wednesday, October 11 1:15 PM SGT
Thai Premier Calls For Global Cooperation To Fight Drugs BANGKOK (AP)--Thailand's prime minister Wednesday called
for greater cooperation between countries to fight drugs saying the global
menace recognizes no international boundaries.
"In spite of our efforts ... this scourge of mankind has become broader in scope and more complex in nature than ever before," Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai said in speech to open a three-day United Nations-sponsored conference. More than 150 participants from 30 Asian, European and
American countries are participating in the conference, which aims to find ways
to fight drugs in Southeast Asia.
Most of the illegal drugs in the region originate in the
opium-producing Golden Triangle, where the borders of northern Thailand, Laos
and Myanmar meet.
Heroin, which is made from opium, and increasingly
methamphetamines are refined in jungle laboratories of the Golden Triangle and
smuggled out for sale within the region and trafficked further afield to
Australia, Europe and the Americas.
Ethnic rebel groups in Myanmar that have reached
cease-fires with the country's ruling military are major producers. This is a
source of tension with neighboring Thailand which regards the methamphetamines
trafficked from Myanmar as its most serious national security threat.
Chuan said the spread of methamphetamine-type stimulants
is "an unprecedented phenomenon" affecting both adults and youth.
Drugs recognize no international boundaries and spawn
other problems such as corruption, money laundering, organized crime and
terrorism, he said.
The conference is being hosted by the Thai government and
the United Nations International Drug Control Program.
A UNDCP statement said the conference will focus on
realizing a pact made by the 10 nations of the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations, or ASEAN, to eliminate illegal drugs from the region by 2015.
U.S. offers cautious praise
for Myanmar counterdrug efforts
BANGKOK, Oct. 11 (Kyodo) -- By: Tim Johnson A U.S. State Department
official praised Wednesday Myanmar's efforts to curb drug trafficking in
government-controlled parts of the country, but said Washington still has
concerns over money laundering and harboring of fugitive drug
traffickers.
''In actual attempts at seizures and in enforcement of
laws within the territory outside of the autonomous regions, I think that we
have seen some good-faith effort,'' James Callahan, head of the Asia-Pacific
office of the State Department's Bureau of International Narcotics and Law
Enforcement, told reporters in Bangkok on the sidelines of a regional drug
conference.
Callahan, who visited Myanmar last week, including a
semi-autonomous area of northeastern Shan State controlled by the United Wa
State Army, said the junta appears to be taking the drug issue ''seriously'' in
view of its ''serious internal problem with narcotics.''
But he criticized the junta for refusing to take punitive
action against known traffickers such as drug lord Khun Sa, who are still
allowed to live freely in Myanmar because of cease-fire agreements.
''Theoretically, they are no longer trafficking -- but who
knows?''
Since 1989, the junta has negotiated cease-fire agreements
with most drug-trafficking groups controlling opium-growing areas in the
northeast, offering them limited autonomy and development assistance in return
for ending insurgencies.
It has refused to prosecute Khun Sa or hand him over to
another country on grounds he has not violated his 1996 surrender agreement,
which reportedly stipulated that if he ended his insurgency and retired from the
drug trade, the government would provide him with security in Yangon and allow
him to conduct legitimate businesses.
Callahan said the junta had also made little effort to
stamp out money laundering.
The U.S. argues that many of the cease-fire agreements not
only allow minorities to continue narcotics cultivation and trafficking for
varying periods of time, but also effectively condone money laundering as the
junta has encouraged investment of past illicit proceeds in ''legitimate''
businesses such as hotels and construction companies.
Myanmar is world's second largest source of illicit opium
and heroin, after Afghanistan.
Callahan said the junta's options in tackling the
trafficking issue at the source are limited as long as it lacks authority in
remote areas controlled by ethnic drug-trafficking armies.
''Most of the trafficking is going on in those areas where
they don't go. So unless that's resolved, the (trafficking) problem won't be,''
he said. ''Certainly it requires a political solution.''
The U.S. official said that while the United Wa State Army
has pledged that its area will be opium-free by 2005, it has not pledged to
cease production of amphetamine-type stimulants such as
methamphetamine.
''I have no idea as to what their plan is,'' he said. ''I
think it's going to require very serious and concerted law enforcement efforts
by all the governments in the region to attack trafficking
organizations.''
One of Myanmar's delegates to the conference, Col. Kyaw
Thein, head of the Defense Ministry's Office of Strategic Studies, told
reporters his government wants to do more but lacks the
wherewithal.
''We are, with our own limited resources, doing our best.
But because of the vastness of the land area and because of the very long border
it's very difficult,'' he said.
Callahan said Myanmar's political situation continues to
rule out direct U.S. counter-narcotics assistance, which was discontinued in
1988 when the Myanmar military brutally repressed the democracy
movement.
He said, however, that once a democratic government comes
to power in Myanmar ''I fully expect that we would once again engage directly in
assisting them in counter-narcotics -- technical assistance training and
probably alternative development assistance as we do in Laos and
Thailand.''
The Times of India -
Oct 12, 2000.
Regional leaders seek global effort to fight `ice' BANGKOK: Thailand's prime minister and top regional
officials on Wednesday called for a global effort to eradicate methamphetamine,
which has replaced heroin as South-East Asia's worst drug menace.
Methamphetamine abuse has become "an unprecedented
phenomenon, affecting not only adults, but also our children and youth," Prime
Minister Chuan Leekpai said in his speech to open a three-day conference on
drugs.
Over 150 participants from 30 Asian, European and American
countries are taking part in the meeting, which will try to find ways to
eliminate drugs in the 10 countries of the Association of South-East Asian
Nations (ASEAN), by 2015.
It is being hosted by the Thai government and the UN
International Drug Control Programme.
A UNDCP report said that in contrast to North America and
Europe, the production, trafficking and abuse of amphetamine-type stimulants
have continued to rise in South-East Asia since the early 1990s.
"Traffickers are expanding the volume and geographic scope
of their operations," the report said.
As the conference got underway, Thai police announced
separately that they seized 2 million methamphetamine tablets, commonly known as
`ice,' on Tuesday from a 28-year-old man trying to sell them to an undercover
agent.
Sakorn Tangvithi told the police after being arrested that
he bought the tablets in northern Thailand, a police statement
said.
Most of the illegal drugs in the region originate in the
jungle laboratories of Myanmar's ethnic armies, in the opium-producing Golden
Triangle, where the borders of northern Thailand, Laos and Myanmar meet. The
drug lords are increasingly producing methamphetamines instead of heroin for
bigger profits.
A US State Department analyst, Thomas Westro, said
synthetic drugs like methamphetamine and ecstasy had "begun to reshape the
global drug trade, most notably in Asia."
"We are likely witnessing the beginning of a (synthetic
drugs) revolution," he said.
Chuan said, "The drug problem recognises no international
boundaries." It can only be "effectively tackled through mutual assistance and
cooperation at the sub-regional, regional and global levels," he
said.
The conference provided "a unique opportunity to share our
vision to redouble our efforts to form a common strategy," Chuan
said.
Vietnam Deputy Prime Minister Pham Gia Khiem said
synthetic drugs had been discovered in about 50 per cent of Vietnam's provinces
and cities. Over 100,000 drug addicts spend 2,000 billion dong ($140 million) on
drugs every year.
He called for computer networking using Internet and
satellite communications to gather information at a regional and inter-regional
level to combat synthetic drugs.
In his speech, the Chinese delegate, State Councilor Luo
Gan, described drugs as a "common enemy" of the international community that
"threatens the future of mankind."
Last month, China began a nationwide operation to combat
methamphetamine, he said.
On Tuesday, Thailand and China signed a tentative
agreement on strengthening bilateral cooperation to counter the narcotics trade,
a Foreign Ministry statement said.
China is expected to sign a similar agreement during the
conference with ASEAN, which comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos,
Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and
Vietnam.(AP)
Bangkok Post - Oct
12, 2000.
Burma asks for understanding 'Don't just blame us, block the chemicals' Anucha Charoenpo Burma says it wants understanding from the international
community about its drug problem, not blame. Instead of blaming Burma for
producing the drug, it said, attempts should be made in neighbouring countries
to stop precursor chemicalsreaching clandestine refineries on the northern
stretch of the Thai-Burmese border.
"No country in this region is spared the menace of illicit
drugs," said Col Kyaw Thein, head of Department of Office of Strategic Studies
at the Ministry of Defence.
Col Kyaw Thein told the International Congress: Pursuit of
a Drug Free Asean 2015 that inflow of smuggled precursor chemicals had forced
Burma to confront the problem. Burma did not deny being a source country but
wanted the international community to be more understanding, said Col Kyaw
Thein.
Burma was taking effective measures to clean itself up.
Thousands of Burmese had been arrested on drug charges.
Col Kyaw Thein refused comment on the United Wa State
Army's involvement in drugs.
Burma, he said, had ordered a massive relocation of Wa
minority people living in the highlands of Shan State to lowlands adjacent to
the northern Thai-Burmese border.
They had been given new farming occupations in a bid to
turn them away from the drugs trade.
With the co-operation of the Wa ethnic group, Burma hoped
to be able to declare the Wa region an opium-free zone by the year 2005, he
said.
Bangkok Post - Oct
12, 2000.
Wa not likely to change Drug abuse among youths yet to peak Nusara Thaitawat The United Wa State Army (UWSA), the biggest drug
trafficking organisation in the region, is making no effort to implement its
stated goal to give up the lucrative trade by 2005, a US State Department
analyst said.
It is instead making efforts to expand its trade even
further, said Thomas Wersto, speaking on the first day of the International
Congress: Pursuit of a Drug Free Asean 2015.
"We see no indications that the UWSA is attempting to
leave the drug trade. Indeed, it may be attempting to position itself for the
future by broadening its base," he said.
"Should the UWSA have a poor opium crop, it can replace
lost revenues by increasing its methamphetamine output and turning to other ATS
[artificial type stimulants]," he said.
The UWSA was well positioned to further expand because it
has access to the materials needed, and there are no direct pressures to stop,
he said.
Under a ceasefire deal with Rangoon in 1989,
UWSA-controlled administrative regions were set up in Burma's eastern Shan
State.
The most important one, known as the southern military
command, is opposite Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai, from where Thai authorities
claim most of the millions of methamphetamine pills flood the Thai
market.
The UWSA is undertaking a massive relocation of its
soldiers and dependents from their northern strongholds to the southern military
command.
Mr Wersto said the use of ATS among the youth in Thailand
and Southeast Asia had yet to peak and it is unclear when it will stabilise.
Unlike drugs such as heroin, there is no stigma attached to speed, he said.
Producers were even cutting costs and profits to expand their customer base, he
said. The abuse of ATS posed a new and serious challenge to law enforcement with
the proliferation of small-scale operators and mobile laboratories, he
said.
Meanwhile, the UN International Drug Control Programme
said its Wa project in a UWSA-controlled area on the Shan-Chinese border made
significant progress with the building of roads, power and water
supplies.
UnDCP official Doris Buddengberg said the five-year,
US$15.5-million-project, which began in 1998, has also been tackling opium poppy
cultivation, community development, immunisation, livestock experiments and
agricultural development.
James Callahan, director of the Asia and Pacific Bureau of
International Narcotics and Law Enforcement, who has visited the Wa project,
said it gained momentum in a short time even though the project area was
small.
The Wa project is located at the southern tip of the
northern Wa area of the Shan State, one of the most remote areas in Burma. It is
also not the area where the millions of ATS is produced.
Mr Callahan said the project clearly tells the UWSA that
it must follow the UNDCP lead and provide alternative development projects for
its people if it wants international assistance. It also show them the concept
of alternative development can work.
Meanwhile, he said the United States was still hoping to
put UWSA drug lord Wei Hsueh-Kang behind bars. Washington placed a US$2 million
reward for information leading to his arrest on drug trafficking
charges.
Mr Callahan said the authorities had no other option but
to make his life and the lives of his associates as "miserable" as possible by
enforcing strict law enforcement measures to deny them access to their
ill-gotten gains.
The Nation - Oct 12,
2000.
'Amphetamine revolution' just beginning - US BY VORAPUN SRIVORANART,DON PATHAN THE United Wa State Army (UWSA) is well-positioned to
continue its dominant role in the international drug trafficking trade in the
near future and shows no signs of quitting the business, a top American
narcotics official said yesterday.
Instead, the UWSA is broadening its base of products,
especially its production of methamphetamines, to offset lost revenue from poor
poppy crops, State Department analyst Thomas Wersto told an international drug
conference in Bangkok.
The three-day meeting, the International Congress in
Pursuit of a Drug-free Asean 2015, was attended by more than 30 countries and
international organisations.
Wersto attributed the increase in UWSA activity to the
group's easy access to the precursor chemicals needed to make synthetic drugs,
along with an almost complete lack of direct pressure by the Burmese government
to stop its involvement in the business.
"We are likely witnessing the beginning of the
amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS) revolution, not the end," he said.
However, a Burmese representative dismissed that notion,
saying his country has been subjected to biased reporting with the Wa, one of
the world's largest armed drug trafficking groups, being unfairly singled out.
Despite steadfast allegations to the contrary by a broad
range of diplomatic, intelligence and NGO observers from the international
community, Colonel Kyaw Thein, head of Burma's powerful Office of Strategic
Studies, said that Burma is trying its best to curb narcotics production within
its borders.
"Everybody is trying to point a finger at the UWSA. I
don't think they are the only ones doing this," said Kyaw Thein. He said that
international organised crime syndicates, such as the triads of Thailand, China,
Hong Kong and Taiwan, are closely involved.
Moreover, he said, the problem of ATS, also commonly known
as "designer drugs", arose in Burma only in late 1996. It is thus considered "a
new threat" for Burma's law enforcement agencies, which have been carrying out
their tasks with extremely limited resources.
Further complicating the junta's task, he explained, is
the long porous border with Burma's neighbours.
While Kyaw Thein insisted the UWSA-controlled area would
be an opium-free zone by 2005, Thai narcotics officers said that ATS are become
an issue of increasing concern for Thailand. They said millions of ATS tablets,
cheaply produced in UWSA-controlled areas, are flooding the country on a monthly
basis.
The Burmese colonel also insisted that shared
responsibility and greater cooperation based on mutual understanding would be
required for the two neighbours to tackle the scourge. This includes reining in
the trafficking of precursor chemicals from neighbouring countries into Burma
under the slogan of "No precursors, no drugs".
"We do not have any chemicals at all, nor the machinery
that's needed. Our country is not a technologically advanced country," he said,
adding that countries that produce these chemicals must also be held responsible
and not allowed to pass all the blame on to Burma: "Finger pointing and blaming
will achieve no success."
Precursor chemicals, especially ephedrine, are vital
ingredients in the manufacturing of ATS.
According to a regional drug observer, most of the
ephedrine comes from China and Thailand, but also from India, which has an
extensive chemical industry. But a Thai narcotics control source denied
ephedrine was flowing into Burma from the Kingdom, saying that trafficking of
the substance ended two years ago.
"We can assure you that there is currently no ephedrine
coming from Thailand," said the source, adding that further measures are being
taken to control other substances from slipping out of the country such as
caffeine, tablet-pumping machines and other apparatus.
But Thailand has not been successful in controlling these
substances since other countries are still allowing the free movement of them,
said the source.
Kyaw Thein reiterated that Rangoon is getting tough on the
perpetrators, with thousands put in jails each year for drug-related offences.
"No drug traffickers are spared from justice," he said.
The Nation - Oct 12,
2000.
Letters - Burmese top brassnext on hit list? Cherry Yap -BANGKOK The downfall of Yugoslavia's dictator Slobodan Milosevic
once again tells the world that global democratisation is unstoppable and
dictatorship is a dead end.
I wonder what the Burmese military junta is thinking about
its own position right now. A little bit chilly, I suppose?
The Burmese top brass must double-check on their
rank-and-file soldiers day and night. Otherwise, they might get back at them
with the people's power. Milosevic and [former Romanian leader Nicolae]
Ceausescu earlier on have simply gone the way things should be.
BBC
- Thursday, 12 October, 2000, 11:52 GMT 12:52 UK
UN
envoy meets Suu Kyi again
The United Nations special envoy to Burma, Razali Ismail, has held a second meeting with the Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The talks took place at the end of Mr Razali's four-day visit to Rangoon to try and mediate between the opposition and the military government. Aung San Suu Kyi and other members of her party, the National League for Democracy, have been held under virtual house arrest for nearly three weeks since she was prevented by the authorities from travelling outside Rangoon. Mr Razali refused to comment on what was discussed at the meeting, but a UN official Patrice Cocur-Bizot said they talked about future possibilities. From the newsroom of the BBC World Service
South China Morning Post
Thursday, October 12, 2000 Junta 'not tackling menace' WILLIAM BARNES in Bangkok Fighting drug producers is still not a priority for
Burma's military regime, Thailand's Deputy Foreign Minister said at the start of
an international drugs congress.
"A lot more could be done by the Myanmar [Burmese] Government to address the drug issue," Sukhumbhand Paribatra said. His remarks at the start of the "In Pursuit of a Drug-free
Asean by 2015" conference signalled the Thai belief that the ball is firmly in
Burma's court and that a country that has more than doubled the size of its
armed forces in a decade can take on groups of armed ethnic traffickers.
Burma's Shan state, the world's second biggest source of
heroin after Afghanistan, has had its image further tarnished in recent years as
the supplier of much of the flood of amphetamines devastating many Asian
communities.
The Thai Prime Minister, Chuan Leekpai, opened the meeting
by describing "the drug menace" as a global threat to economic and social
welfare and political stability.
"This is a wonderful opportunity for Myanmar to prove she
is serious about solving the drug problem," Mr Sukhumbhand said. He noted the
"scepticism" that greeted the claim by the regime's leader, General Than Shwe,
to Mr Chuan last year that his Government could not exert any control over areas
controlled by the Wa minority.
The United Wa State Army is easily the most powerful of
several trafficking gangs run by ethnic minority groups or ethnic Chinese
gangsters in the Shan State part of the so-called Golden Triangle.
Critics of the military Government claim it is prepared to
do deals with the likes of the Wa army - described by the US as the world's
biggest armed trafficking gang - that prop up the economy with drug money and
leave it free to concentrate on repressing civilians. "For the Myanmar
Government, exerting control over Wa-controlled territory is not a priority," Mr
Sukhumbhand said.
Burma's drug spokesman, Colonel Kyaw Thein, defended his
Government's record by noting how the area under poppy cultivation in the Shan
State had fallen three years in a row.
The colonel also said some of the blame should be directed
at neighbouring countries that supplied the traffickers with the chemicals
necessary to turn opium into heroin.
"We are doing our best," he said. "It's very rugged
country with a very long border. Our neighbours also need to take action against
people who buy these drugs and supply the necessary chemicals."
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