What's is Brookes smoking?

[bes815@xxxxxxxxxxx]

Subject: New scent to US drug policy in Myanmar
Date: Thu, 10 Jul 1997 08:22:32 GMT
Message-ID: <33c49b9a.702335@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Asis Times
New scent to US drug policy in Myanmar
Stephen Brookes, Yangon, 9th July 1997
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As heroin supplies rise on the streets of United States cities,
Washington may be rethinking its strategy in fighting the narcotics
trade out of Myanmar, according to sources close to the US State
Department. 
Despite the large amounts of opium being grown in Myanmar, Washington
has not provided counter-narcotics assistance to the ruling State Law
and Order Restoration Council since 1988, accusing SLORC of inadequate
counter-narcotics efforts. 
"The vast majority of heroin on the streets of the United States" is
from Myanmar, where opium cultivation and drug trafficking are
conducted "without any meaningful constraint by authorities", said US
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in March, justifying this year's
decision to continue withholding aid. 
A much stronger statement last year by US Assistant Secretary of State
for International Narcotics and Law-Enforcement Affairs (INL) Robert S
Gelbard, who accused SLORC of turning a blind eye to drug producers,
running money-laundering operations and profiting directly from the
trade. 
"Burmese authorities have made no discernible efforts to improve their
performance," wrote Gelbard in the November 21 issue of the Far
Eastern Economic Review. "From a hardheaded, drug-control point of
view, I have to conclude that SLORC has been part of the problem, not
the solution." 
But Gelbard recently left INL for another position in the State
Department, and some observers believe that General Barry McCaffrey,
director of the US Office of National Drug Control Policy, will now
take a larger role in shaping the administrations's approach to
Myanmar. 
Shortly after assuming his position last year, McCaffrey summed up
Washington's confusion over how to deal with Myanmar. "It is not clear
to me what [the US] will do because for the present, the dominant
concern in the US is ... the human rights situation confronting the
Burmese people. And I don't know where we will go. 
"We are facing such a dilemma in our commitment to democracy. We
simply don't have a way to move ahead as long as democracy and human
rights issues remain in front of us," he said. 
One source close to McCaffrey, however, has said that the US drug tsar
wants to inject a more "common sense" approach into US policy. 
"McCaffrey and others think that Washington's main concern should be
about the rights of American citizens," said the source. "The price of
heroin is coming down in the United States, and it's a very serious
problem. There's much more heroin on the streets. And if that heroin
is coming from Myanmar, then why not do whatever we can to stop it?
How does decertifying Myanmar help the United States? It only makes
matters worse." 
Analysts in Yangon suggest that Washington may try to provide
anti-narcotics funding to Myanmar through multilateral channels,
rather than bilateral aid. "Myanmar's entry into ASEAN presents a
possibility for change," said one analyst. 
"Washington could say, 'Let's try an Asian solution to an Asian
problem', and take a broad, regional approach to solving the problem.\
----------------------------------------------

Brookes, what are you smoking?  It must be one of the SLORC's two 
products
-- opium or bullshit.  
You obviously have little understanding of Washington.
You are thinking like the SLORC -- that all policies are personal, 
dictated by some tyrant ruling over his department as would 
some feudal lord over his fiefdom. (e.g. a SLORC minister)   
Sorry, Brookes, in case you've forgotten, policy is produced by
a collective process in DC.  Gelbard's departure does not signal any 
change.  
The policy he espoused is the same policy put forth by the President 
and the last two Secretaries of State.  Look up   
Secretary Christopher's statements on Burma narcotics at the July 1996
ASEAN PMC and ARF.  He decries the SLORC's involvement in money 
laundering.
Look at President Clinton's statement in Bangkok in November; he 
indicates
that the SLORC is part of our narcotics problem.  
And most recently, look at the narcotics language in the President's
executive order authorizing investment sanctions against Burma.  
Do you really think McCaffrey can trump Albright on Foreign Policy?
Get real!
By the way, Albright never used the word "Myanmar" in her
statement regarding drugs in Burma -- the word is not in her
vocabulary.  Get your facts straight.  But then again, I guess
you don't need to -- you're newspaper has gone belly-up!! 

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