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Aid to curb Myanmar opium could tot



>From soba@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  Thu Apr  9 06:14:20 1998

The Japan Times,

Page -3

9 April 1988.

Aid to curb Myanmar opium could total up to Yen 700 million

By HISANE MASAKI

Staff writer

Japan will provide between Yen 500 million and Yen 700 million in
grant-in-aid to help Myanmar increase production of alternative crops
to opium along its northeastern border with Thailand and Laos, Foreign
Ministry sources said Wednesday.

The decision to provide the official development assistance - the
first full-scale grant-in-aid given to Myanmar in nearly 2.5 years -
will be formally approved at a Cabinet meeting early next month, the
sources said.

The sources said the funds will be used to purchase tractors and
fertilizers for farmers in an opium-producing area in northeastern
Myanmar. The so-called Golden Triangle region, comprising parts of
Myanmar, Thailand and Laos, is notorious for cultivating huge amounts
of the crop.

The sources said that although Japan also provided Yen 1 billion in
grant-in-aid in March 1995 to help Myanmar increase agricultural
production in areas inhabited by ethnic minorities, the use of that
aid was not limited to the country*s northeastern opium-producing
area.

The sources indicated that the 1995 aid was not properly used by the
government and said that Japan-in cooperation with the United Nations
Drug Control Program - will strictly monitor the use of new aid money
to ensure that it is not diverted to other purposes.

The aid will be the largest grant-in-aid given to Myanmar since
October 1995, when Tokyo provided Yen 1.6 billion to the country*s
capital, Yangon, for repairs to a nurse training school.

Since the military took power of Myanmar in a 1988 coup, Japan has
effectively suspended official development assistance - both grant-in
aid and low-interest yen loans - for Yangon except for what it views
as humanitarian purposes.

Although Japan decided last month to disburse about Yen 2.5 billion in
yen loans for the repair of Yangon*s international airport, government
officials have unanimously insisted that the first yen-loan in a
decade is for the "purely humanitarian" purpose of ensuring safety at
the aging airport.

The decision to provide the airport loans has drawn some criticism
both at home and abroad because of the military regime*s continued
crackdown on the prodemocracy movement, led by opposition leader and
Nobel Pease Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

Japan has recently shown a readiness to play a more active role in
addressing the drug issue in Myanmar and elsewhere in Asia. Japan,
Myanmar and the UNDCP jointly sponsored an international seminar in
Yangon on March 31 and April 1 to discuss ways to develop alternative
crops to opium.

Although Japan has already made financial contributions to the UNDCP*s
anti-drug operation in Myanmar, the seminar marked the first time that
Japan had jointly sponsored an international meeting in Yangon on the
drug issue. A special session of the U.N. General Assembly on drugs is
also scheduled for June in New York.

The Yangon seminar which brought together senior officials from nearly
30 governments and international organizations, was aimed at
strengthening efforts by Myanmar and other Asian countries to
eradicate the drug problem though an exchange of information and
experience on developing alternative crops to opium.

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