Loi Tai Leng, Burma -- The frontline of Burma's largest rebel army is a lonely hilltop ringed by a land mine-littered jungle, mountains controlled by the Burmese military and a patchwork of poppy fields visible through a rusting pair of Soviet binoculars. "It's opium," said Nan Daw, a captain in the Shan State Army South. "I know because I have patrolled there." Burma's southern Shan state, a historically independent area, is a nest of battlefields, rebel cease-fire zones and territory controlled by the Burmese military. The Shan, the nation's largest ethnic minority with about 6 million people, have been engaged in an intermittent guerrilla war of independence since the military junta took power in a coup in 1962. [continues 1012 words]
YANGON, Myanmar - Myanmar, the world's second-largest producer of opium, on Monday destroyed more than a tonne of seized substances with a street value of over $100 million US to mark an international anti-drug day, officials said. Speaking at the drug burning, police chief Maj. Gen. Khin Yi said Myanmar has made the eradication of "the scourge of narcotic drugs ... a national priority," resulting in a sharp decline in opium poppy cultivation and a drop in the quantities of seized drugs. [continues 116 words]
At the top of Gon Kha hill on the border between Thailand and Burma, the rebels of the Shan State Army shelter inside sandbagged wooden fortifications and dug-outs. Less than half a mile away at the foot of the hill are six enemy positions. A company of SSA soldiers head for the Resistance Day commemorations at Doi Taileng Between the two, on a steep, grassy slope, the SSA claim that hundreds of their opponents have died. The soldiers argue that they had no choice but to mow them down as they charged up the hill. [continues 664 words]
Thailand and the United States have taken legal steps against the biggest, richest druglords in Asia. A US federal court accepted a case against eight leaders and drug peddlers with the United Wa State Army for making, smuggling and selling opium, heroin and amphetamines. Thailand, which already has criminal cases against several of the Wa, took a direct and active interest in the US case. This case is not just a symbol but an important milestone in a crucial battle. The single reason these dangerous, long-term drug traffickers continue to run drug cartels for profit is because of the protection of the Burmese dictatorship. [continues 600 words]
The chief of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Burma is concerned with the shortcomings of humanitarian assistance for opium-growers in sustainable alternative projects amid the tightening sanctions against the military regime. ''We are trying not to let Burma become another Afghanistan, where after the removal of the Taliban regime the opium situation has gone back to square one and it costs international taxpayers a lot today to clean up the mess since the poor Afghan farmers have no other choices,'' said Jean-Luc Lemahieu, the UNODC representative in Burma. [continues 422 words]
The United Nations' report that more than one million impoverished farmers in Burma are facing a ''humanitarian disaster'' for giving up opium cultivation is the bad news in a story that could otherwise give the world's anti-drug campaigners cause for celebration. The significant decline in poppy fields and opium output in Burma's Shan state revealed by the Opium Survey 2004 of the UN's Office on Drugs and Crime is encouraging. It shows the agency's efforts to eradicate opium cultivation through crop substitution programmes are moving in the right direction. Regretfully, the shortfall in the financial support from donor countries, particularly the United States and the European Union, are undermining the UNODC's attempt to build a safety net needed by these people who have given up their illicit crop. [continues 530 words]
Wa Leaders Promise End to Opium Cultivation by Next June, but Farmers Worry How They Will Feed Their Families Burma's production of opium has fallen dramatically over the last 12 months. Poppy production fell by more than 50% in 2004, according to the latest survey by the UN's anti-narcotics body. The area under cultivation fell by nearly 30% and poppy production has fallen by 54% since last year, Jean-Luc Lemahieu, head of the UN office on drugs and crime (UNODC) told the Bangkok Post. [continues 949 words]
"The Shan State with not just the crop-substitution programmes, but also with industrial and other projects that will give the farmers a new opportunity to stop the opium growing and have enough money to live," commented a Thai officer assigned to this task. But a change to other crops is not so simple. A Wa dissident warned: "Many farmers have problems finding a market for other crops, and the price may not be enough to survive on. So they return to growing the opium poppies as they have been doing for decades." [continues 835 words]
The drug money is still flowing into the Wa capital, but pressure from China to curtail the illicit trade may be making the kingpins a little nervous "If we have any more opium here after 2005, you can come and chop my head off." This is the most famous statement of Pau Yu Chang, chairman of the United Wa State Army (UWSA), and the richest and most powerful Wa leader. A former member of the Communist Party of Burma (CPB), he reigns the Wa region with an iron fist, or more like a communist dictator. [continues 1331 words]
Burma's State Peace and Development Council chairman Than Shwe says he backs Thailand's fight against drugs along the border, Defence Minister Thammarak Isarangkura na Ayudhya said. ``We have reached an understanding on security issues, and Burma agreed that both sides had to strengthen their cooperation to snuff out the problem which also posed security threats to Burma,'' the minister said after his return from a three-day visit to Burma. Gen Thammarak said the common threat could not be resolved without full cooperation from Burma. [continues 217 words]
WASHINGTON, Feb 1 (AFP) - President George W. Bush Friday accused Myanmar of failing to adequately battle drugs production, in a body blow to Yangon's calculated bid to shed its reputation as "narco- state." The decision featured in the president's annual report to Congress listing countries which fail to meet US standards for combating the drugs trade, and which are therefore face US sanctions. But even as the decision, which had been expected, was officially confirmed, the State Department noted some progress in Myanmar's anti- drug campaign, apparently keen to encourage future anti-narcotics efforts. [continues 484 words]
Tea Plantations Can't Compete on Wages High unemployment and the rising cost of living in Burma have forced thousands of Palaung people to turn to drug producers for jobs in border areas, according to a Palaung meeting. Palaung State Liberation Front secretary-general Mai Aik Phong told last weekend's PSLF meeting that it was becoming more difficult to combat the drugs menace because of mass unemployment, leaving many with no choice but to serve drug producers, dealers and traffickers. [continues 331 words]
Burma's ruling generals and their Wa allies on the country's north eastern border have pledged big cuts in opium production, hoping to head off international criticism. Larry Jagan, the BBC's Burma analyst, reports. Bao Yuxiang, the notorious drug warlord and commander of the United Wa State Army, says he will dramatically cut production of opium poppy in areas under his control within the next 12 months. "I have promised to make the Wa areas drug-free by 2005 and I will," he told the BBC in a recent interview in his home-base of Pangshang, on the border with China. [continues 722 words]
YANGON, Myanmar - Heave tons of sacks of opium, heroin, marijuana and other illegal drugs into an outdoor furnace and the result is a tower of black smoke that rises over this green and rain-washed city for hours.The bonfire in late June was proof, an official told assembled diplomats, that Myanmar was waging a heroic war on drugs, "considering that we receive almost zero assistance from the international community for our efforts." "We have to believe that they will meet the deadline," said Col. Kyaw Thein, the top drug enforcement official here. A crackdown on drug producers and traffickers is one of a set of criteria imposed by the United States as a requirement for counternarcotics assistance, which would come mainly in the form of training. [continues 306 words]
YANGON: AFP- Military-ruled Myanmar, the world's largest opium producer, put the torch yesterday to drugs it said were worth more than a US$1bil (RM3.8bil) in its latest bid to convince critics it is committed to eradicating the menace. In a steady downpour and accompanied by a military tattoo, the junta flicked a switch to ignite an incinerator into which workers shovelled bags of heroin bricks and amphetamines. Senior Gen Than Shwe, the country's top ruler, and international diplomats attended the burning ceremony, the 16th of its type held by the junta since 1990. [continues 201 words]
Under A Cloud Of Drug Suspicion, Burma Accused Thailand Of Supporting 'Terrorist' Groups On Friday. CHIANG MAI, THAILAND - Burma wants to show the world how hard it's fighting to win the drug war. So last month, it ferried a group of Rangoon-based diplomats by helicopter into Panghsang, a remote town in the Wa Hills along the Chinese frontier, according to a detailed government statement. Burmese military officials led the diplomats on a tour of crop-substitution programs run by the Burmese government and a briefing by Pauk Yu Chan, whom the Burmese refer to as the "Wa National Race Leader." [continues 907 words]
Doi Tung development project in Mae Fa Luang district is being used as a model for the ethnic Wa hilltribe to turn a drug village in Burma into a drug-free zone, after the closure of drug-related businesses in Tachilek. M.R. Ditsanatda Ditsakul, director of Doi Tung development project, said the government had assigned Mae Fa Luang Foundation and project co-ordinators to survey Burma's Ban Yongkha, opposite Mae Fa Luang district, and find out how to encourage Wa villagers there to stop growing drug plants and selling drugs. [continues 75 words]
Rangoon Asked to Stop Heroin Dealers, But Wrong Man Shot A police drugs "sting" went badly wrong when Burmese officials shot a Thai informant and seized nearly 38kg of heroin in Burma's Tachilek border town _ following a tip-off from Thai border authorities. Now the Narcotics Suppression Division is asking Burma to hand back the informant, who was wounded. Pol Maj-Gen Adithep Panjamanont, the division commander, said the arrest and shooting of Noppakhun Duangkham, 27, by Burmese security officials on April 1 was a misunderstanding. [continues 422 words]
Bid to Improve Image Overseas In a bid to improve the way it is viewed overseas, the Burmese military junta has told minority groups that drug trafficking will no longer be tolerated by Rangoon. State Peace and Development Council first secretary Khin Nyunt had briefed minority groups thought to be involved in drugs before issuing the instruction on March 22 in Lashio, a source said. The intelligence chief was quoted as saying that drug crimes -- including production of heroin and methamphetamine, trafficking, possession of precursor chemicals and drug paraphernalia, and poppy cultivation -- would no longer be tolerated. [continues 233 words]
BANGKOK - In a significant policy change that could put a notorious Myanmar-based narcotics cartel in the bull's-eye, senior American officials said the Wa drug dealers are targets in the war against terrorism. The Bangkok Post said in a report yesterday that the key change in the US policy came last week, in separate testimonies by officials before a US Senate committee. Mr Rand Beers, assistant secretary of state for drug and law enforcement, and Mr Francis Taylor, ambassador-at-large for counter- terrorism, designated the United Wa State Army (UWSA) for the first time as 'a terrorist group with known links to drug trafficking around the world'. Until now, Washington had considered the UWSA only as a drug gang. [end]
Burma Must Act Or Risk Intervention The United States has declared the Wa drug dealers are important targets in the war on terrorism, a significant policy change that could put the Burma-based narcotics cartel in the US bullseye. Diplomatic sources in Bangkok said it was clear US policy in the region is quickly evolving, and will put pressure on Burma to strike fast and hard against drug kingpin Wei Hsueh-kang or risk intervention from outside. In a separate development, the American military commander in the Pacific, Adm Dennis Blair, stressed the importance of close US-Thai relations. [continues 430 words]
Bangkok - The international policy of isolating Burma should be reversed to allow more humanitarian funds to areas undergoing opium crop reduction programs, UN officials say. European states, as well as human rights groups, have led the call for severe limits on aid to the military government in Rangoon until improvements are made in its human rights record. But UN officials are arguing against the isolationist policy, saying funds are needed to assist ongoing efforts to reduce the output of opium from Burma's northern regions. [continues 343 words]
Burma is now one of the most committed states in the fight against drugs, according to the head of the United Nations Drugs Control Programme (UNDCP) in Bangkok. It even contributes financially, says Dr Sandro Calvani. For years the international community blamed the Burmese military regime for the spiralling traffic of illicit drugs out of the Golden Triangle - the border area of Thailand, Burma and Laos. Burma now says it is cracking down. "On drugs we have nothing to hide," says an internal government document. [continues 627 words]
Burma is now one of the most committed states in the fight against drugs, according to the head of the United Nations Drugs Control Programme (UNDCP) in Bangkok. It even contributes financially, says Dr Sandro Calvani. For years the international community blamed the Burmese military regime for the spiralling traffic of illicit drugs out of the Golden Triangle - the border area of Thailand, Burma and Laos. Burma now says it is cracking down. "On drugs we have nothing to hide," says an internal government document. [continues 625 words]
The special negotiator of the United Nations has made his sixth trip to Burma in a little more than a year. Razali Ismail once again talked with military dictators and democrats. But when he left, Burma was still under the thumb of the military. That bodes badly for the Burmese, now in their 40th year of rule by harsh military autocrats. But it continues to threaten neighbours as well. As long as the Rangoon dictatorship is not accountable to the Burmese, it is accountable to no one. [continues 562 words]
LONDON (AP) - Burma could become the world's biggest supplier of heroin if Afghan growers adhere to the Taliban's ban on opium poppy cultivation, a U.N. researcher said Friday. Dr. Sandeep Chawla, chief of research for the U.N. drug control program, said last year's ban by Afghanistan's hard-line Taliban rulers was highly effective. ``Afghanistan has gone from producing 70 percent of the world's opium to less than 10 percent,'' Chawla told a London conference organized by the British charity Drug Scope. [continues 184 words]
U.S. Trains Thai Unit To Block Methamphetamine Traffic Doi Kiu Hung, Thailand - In Southeast Asia's infamous poppy-growing heartland known as the Golden Triangle, drug warlords have begun producing large quantities of a methamphetamine -- known as "crazy medicine" -- that is rivaling the traditional trade in heroin and prompting the U.S. military to quietly train an anti-drug commando unit in Thailand. Most of the drug production is occurring in Burma, also known as Myanmar, where Thai military officials and Western drug-control specialists estimate as many as 50 large factories are synthesizing the substance. Thai officials estimate as many as 800 million tablets of the drug -- about 80 tons -- will be smuggled into their country from Burma this year, a figure one drug expert described as "unprecedented for a country the size of Thailand." [continues 1616 words]
Tak-Nine soldiers of the pro-Rangoon Democratic Karen Buddhist Army defected to the Karen National Union in Burma, opposite Tha Song Yang district yesterday. The defectors handed over five M16 and AK47 rifles, two M79 grenade launchers, one RPG rocket launcher, and a quantity of ammunition to the anti-Rangoon KNU, a KNU source said. They said they could not stand by and watch the large number of DKBA soldiers becoming addicted to methamphetamines and being forced to deliver the pills to the Thai border. They said Phra Uthusna, the DKBA leader, had moved from Mya Yi Ngu temple near the border to a small village near Pa-an, the Karen state capital. The DKBA broke away from the KNU in 1994 after Rangoon promised autonomy to Buddhist Karen. [end]
The ethnic Wa hill tribe in Burma - once dubbed "the world's biggest gang of armed drug traffickers" - have taken over a bank and a domestic airline, underlining the importance of drug money in a troubled economy. The United Wa State Army has taken control of the ailing Myanmar Mayflower Bank in Rangoon and its 21 nationwide branches. The group's other interests include a third of the country's only GSM phone project, lucrative gem mining concessions and, reputedly, nightclubs in the capital. The Wa chief, Pao Yu Chang, has also recently taken direct personal control of the unprofitable Yangon Airways. "Drug traffickers have taken over more and more of the legitimate economy, and are getting more brazen about it, over the last couple of years," said a drug analyst. [continues 335 words]
Rangoon is committed to the war on drugs and has co-operated closely with Thailand, but certain western countries have demeaned its efforts, the Burmese police chief said yesterday. The central committee for drug abuse control had exchanged information at all levels with the Narcotics Control Board, Pol Maj-Gen Soe Win said. Law officers from the two countries met twice-yearly through the UN Drug Control Programme. Law enforcement along the border involved the military, customs and police, but the "politics" of certain western countries had belittled Burma's co-operation with Thailand and other neighbours. [continues 56 words]
Nobel Prize Winner Held At Home For Most Of Past Decade Burma's military dictatorship signaled Monday that it might soon release Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the country's democratic opposition and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, who has been under house arrest since September. The junta that rules Burma, also known as Myanmar, has been bombarded in recent weeks by criticism from the United Nations, human rights groups and Thailand. It has been accused of torturing political opponents, using forced labor and condoning an illegal drug industry that is spreading addiction across Southeast Asia. [continues 471 words]
For the second time in six months, the United Nations is sponsoring a conference against drugs in the centre of the main drug trafficking in Southeast Asia. The United States and several other countries are boycotting this largely futile meeting of regional policemen. Burmese organisers claim this shows that certain countries-translation: the United States-refuse to co-operate with Burma in its efforts to fight the drug trade. If it were not so serious, it would be funny. Even the reason for the second meeting of law-enforcement chiefs is unclear. The meeting of Asean police chiefs in Rangoon last May produced no discernible positive results. On the contrary, the it seemed distasteful to force the top law-enforcement officers to meet in the home town of Khun Sa, Lo Hsing-han and other infamous, free drug dealers. Officials argued that the chiefs could make personal contacts that would serve all countries later on. [continues 467 words]
KEKKU, Myanmar -- Freedom's just another word for cutting a deal with the generals. That is what the business manager of the Pao National Organization explained over a lunch of spicy chicken and avocado salad here in the rebel outback of a country that is a perennial contender for the title of world's most repressive state. By agreeing to a cease-fire with the generals who run what used to be called Burma, the Pao, an ethnic minority of about 400,000 people in a country of 50 million, have won themselves civil rights and economic opportunities all but unimaginable to most Burmese. [continues 232 words]
YANGON, Myanmar -- To inoculate themselves against any outbreak of democracy, the generals who run this hermit dictatorship have undertaken two urgent missions of self-preservation. Seeking support from the Buddhist majority in what used to be called Burma, the junta is sprucing up old pagodas and building new ones at a pace and on a scale that experts say is without precedent. Nearly every day, a top general travels by armed motorcade to a recently restored pagoda. As state television records his piety, the general removes his shiny shoes and inspects a newly gilded Buddha. [continues 3551 words]
Hu Says Trafficking A Regional Threat Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai asked for China's support yesterday to end widespread drug trafficking along the border with Burma. Mr Chuan raised the issue during an hour of talks with Chinese Vice-President Hu Jintao and asked for collaboration from Beijing, which maintains strong relations with Rangoon. Government spokesman Akapol Sorasuchart said Mr Hu told the premier China regarded drug trafficking as a grave threat to regional security. He had earlier discussed the issue with Burmese leaders and pledged financial support for crop substitution projects among ethnic minorities in border areas as a long-lasting solution. [continues 317 words]
Thai security forces were yesterday moving into border areas with Burma, amid growing fears of ethnic fighting and drug trafficking. The fears have been prompted by the drug-running ethnic Wa's plan to bring 50,000 families to the border. The mass relocation of an estimated 200,000 people from the Wa's northern base abutting China has infuriated many Thais, who see it as a blatant snub to their concerns over flourishing exports of amphetamines. "By beefing up their physical presence [on the Thai border] they are creating an even more formidable launching pad for their evil business," said a Thai narcotics official in Chiang Mai. [continues 383 words]
Drugs production and trafficking from Myanmar is increasing rapidly, posing a serious threat to Thailand and other countries in the region, the Thai army said. Speaking on a tour of Thailand's Golden Triangle region, on the borders of Myanmar and Laos, Thai military officials said the mass relocation of ethnic minorities within Myanmar over the last year had fuelled a massive increase in drugs production. A report by the Thai security agency says that as of May this year, about 50 methamphetamine factories were newly established inside Myanmar close to Thai border and 10 others had been set up in Laos also close to the Thai border. [continues 444 words]
BANGKOK, June 23 (Reuters) - The United States said on Friday that Myanmar's poor record on democracy and human rights meant Washington would not provide money to help combat illegal drug production in the impoverished country. White House anti-drugs czar Barry McCaffrey told a news conference in Bangkok there was ``widespread drug production'' in Myanmar, which posed a threat to the rest of the region. ``Burma (Myanmar) is a massive source of drug production, which is impacting its neighbours,'' he said. [continues 400 words]
MYANMAR'S most notorious drug lord, Khun Sa, is semi-paralysed and is not expected to last the year, according to sources close to him. Friends say he is becoming increasingly feeble and forgetful and cannot get out of bed without help. Khun Sa, once the most-wanted man on the United States' list of international drug dealers, lives in Yangon inside a military intelligence compound. The military junta has refused consistently to extradite him following a 1996 deal in which he abandoned his ethnic Mong Tai Army (MTA) and his Homong base in Shan state. The MTA, a former enemy of the junta, then broke apart. [continues 523 words]
Mystery surrounds the death from a suspected heroin overdose of the younger brother of a British viscount. The Hon Hugh Fitzroy Newdegate, 39, was found in his room at Rangoon's five-star Traders hotel at lunchtime on Friday, it was revealed yesterday. A small packet containing 0.02 grams of heroin was found in a drawer at his bedside, according to the Burmese state newspaper Kyemon. "He had not been seen since noon on Thursday," said a Foreign Office spokesman. "When found by a hotel doctor, he was pronounced dead. The Burmese police are conducting an investigation. We have been in touch with the Newdegate family." [continues 309 words]
Burma's booming heroin industry is helping to kindle the AIDS epidemics in nearby countries, including China, India and Vietnam, with outbreaks of the infection flaring like a fuse along routes used by traffickers to transport the drug. A new study by American, Chinese and Indian researchers tracks how different strains of the AIDS virus have followed the path of heroin in communities along four separate trafficking routes in the region. The spread of the human immunodeficiency virus accompanies a rise in local drug use that reflects the flooding of the market with Burmese heroin. [continues 605 words]
Burmese Group Is Relocating Villagers Who Grew Opium Poppies WAN HUNG, Burma - In a bid to improve their image and win international development assistance, leaders of one of the world's largest opium armies have unveiled plans to extricate themselves from all aspects of the drug trade within five years. The leaders of the United Wa State Army detailed their plan - including the forced relocation of 50,000 mountain villagers - to a group of foreign journalists ferried in by helicopter over the weekend to witness a carefully choreographed destruction of opium fields. [continues 741 words]
The Burmese government is forcing an unprecedented exodus of 50,000 people out of prime opium growing areas under an ambitious programme to turn one of the world’s biggest narcotic producing zones into a drug free area by 2005. The territory is controlled by the United Wa State Army, described by the United States Department of State as the world’s largest drug trafficking organisation and south east Asia’s leading producer of heroin. The Wa comprises former anti government insurgents who made peace with the military in 1989. [continues 240 words]
Burma's junta said at the weekend that shifting 50,000 poppy-growing villagers from the Chinese border will help smash the heart of its biggest opium growing region. But the ethnic Wa will be dumped in an area controlled by the country's most notorious trafficker - Thailand's public enemy No 1, Wei Hsueh-kang, who is also wanted in the United States on drugs charges. The United Wa State Army told reporters on a tour organised by the junta that the three-year move showed that it was serious about making its rocky border territory drug-free by 2005. [continues 398 words]
MONG PAWK, Myanmar - The U.N. drug control agency is struggling fund an anti-opium offensive in impoverished Myanmar villages. In a bid to drum up money from donor nations, diplomats were flown by helicopter this week to the eastern Shan state, the heartland of Southeast Asia's Golden Triangle and the target of the U.N.'s $15.8-million project to wean communities off poppy cultivation. The U.N. International Drugs Control Program so far has received a total of nearly $8 million from the United States and Japan, chief technical adviser John Dalton said Friday. [continues 205 words]
LASHIO, Myanmar - In the early years of World War II, the dusty outpost of Lashio was a key junction on the Burma Road, the intravenous drip that fed Allied supplies to the beleaguered government of China. The mountainous route in northeastern Myanmar retains a whiff of danger and mystery, but these days it's because the old road is one of the world's biggest smuggling routes. The cargo moving up and down treacherous switchbacks and over rickety bridges in smoke-belching trucks is a lifeline for the bankrupt military regime of Myanmar, as Burma is now known. But it also is fanning ethnic tensions and feeding the world's drug habit. [continues 663 words]
CHIANG MAI, Thailand, July 22 (Reuters) - Khun Sa, the Golden Triangle drug baron who retired after surrendering to Myanmar authorities four years ago, is back in business, Thai narcotics officials said on Thursday. There were signs the former commander of the separatist Mong Tai Army (MTA) in Myanmar's northeastern Shan state has become involved again with his son in the opium-growing Golden Triangle, they told reporters. The Golden Triangle straddles the borders of Myanmar, Thailand and Laos. ``His son, Charm Herng is now playing an active role in drug trafficking. There are signs Khun Sa is also getting involved,'' said Pinyo Chaithong, the head of Thailand's Office of Narcotics Control Board (ONCB) based in northern Chiang Mai. [continues 415 words]
BANGKOK, April 26 (Kyodo) -- Myanmar reiterated Monday determination to continue a 15-year narcotic elimination plan, although lack of external assistance and cooperation could jeopardize and prolong the process, according to a senior Myanmar official in charge of drug control. The plan aims to achieve by 2014 a drug-free Myanmar that is in line with the joint declaration of the 9-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to emerge as a drug-free region by 2020. ''We need a lot, from all aspects, development projects,'' Lt. Col. Sit Aye, deputy director of Myanmar's Central Committee for Drug Abuse Control (CCDAC), said in Bangkok. [continues 314 words]
LOI SAM SAO, Myanmar - Cradling an assault rifle, a teenage rebel sits at a guard post watching trucks hauling consumer goods and construction material into northeastern Myanmar over the dusty road from Thailand. Across the border sits a Thai army command post that overlooks the hills of Southeast Asia's "Golden Triangle," the region where experts say nearly half the world's heroin is produced and then smuggled out to the streets of America and Europe. The young rebel is the first line of contact between outsiders and the United Wa State Army, one of the numerous ethnic groups not controlled by the central government of Myanmar, or Burma. [continues 629 words]
NONG HOI, Thailand, March 3 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright took a swipe at Myanmar's tolerance of opium production on Wednesday on a visit to a Thai village where flowers and vegetables have replaced poppies. Albright told the villagers of Nong Hoi in northern Thailand she had come to show support for projects which improve the lives of the local hill tribes and which provide alternatives to opium cultivation. "This is in marked contrast to the country of Burma (Myanmar), where they are not doing the kind of things you are doing here," she told schoolchildren and local dignitaries. [continues 468 words]
Inside Burma
