Source: Reuter Pubdate: Tue, 9 Jun 1998 Author: Evelyn Leopold MYANMAR NEEDS MORE MONEY TO ACCELERATE ANTI-DRUG PLAN UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The military government of Myanmar (Burma) said on Tuesday it needed international assistance or it could not eliminate its opium poppy crop, the second largest in the world, within 10 years as the United Nations wants. Addressing a U.N. summit on drugs, Col. Tin Hlaing, the home affairs minister, said his government since September had destroyed more than 8,555 pounds of heroin and over 54,670 pounds of opium and 11 million tablets of stimulants. In addition he said seized drugs have been burned 12 times in the capital Yangon, formerly Rangoon, and 19 times in border areas in which 766 soldiers lost their lives and 2,292 were injured. ``We are determined to achieve the goal of total elimination of poppy growing and opium production in Myanmar within 15 years and with available resources of our own,'' he said. ``Nevertheless should there be assistance from the international community, this goal will be achieved sooner rather than later,'' he added. Pino Arlacchi, the head of the U.N. drug control program in Vienna, is promoting a plan that would induce farmers in nine drug-producing countries to switch to legal crops. Myanmar, whose military government has been criticized around the world for severe human rights violations and for suppressing the results of elections, is expected to find few donors for any drug control program the army runs. But Arlacchi said there were no plans to give Myanmar, or the Taliban in Afghanistan, the world's largest supplier of heroin, large amounts of money and that any program could be supervised through satellite reconnaissance and other means. His spokesman Sandro Tucci said on Tuesday, ``These are the people we must deal with -- not Sweden. The alternative would be to do nothing.'' The United States has supported the alternative development plan in various countries of the world but has devoted more funds to law enforcement. The State Department last week set $2 million rewards for four men wanted in drug charges in New York, three of them from Myanmar. One of the accused, Khun Sa, was captured by Myanmar's military in 1996 and is believed to be living in an army safe house in Yangon, along with key aide Chang Ping-Yun. - ---