What's is Brookes smoking? (r)

[cd@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Well put. Dawn Star, Euro-Burmanet
http://www-uvi.euent.fr/euro-burma/drug/

bes815@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> 
> From: "burma wallah" <bes815@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> 
> Subject: New scent to US drug policy in Myanmar
> From: myanmar@xxxxxxxxx (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
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> 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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