BP: Six Mekong states sign 3 pacts

[suriya@xxxxxxxxxxxx]

May 19, 1998


                                 



                                NARCOTICS

              Six Mekong states
              sign 3 pacts to
              fight drugs

              The six Mekong countries have signed three more agreements
              worth some US$4 million and set up a task force on
              cross-border trade under a United Nations-sponsored regional
              drugs cooperation scheme launched in 1995.

              The agreements for joint projects on demand reduction among
              high risk groups, improvement of drug abuse data-collecting
              systems, and cross-border cooperation for reduction of opium
              poppy cultivation, were concluded at a meeting in Hanoi of the
              six countries' senior drug officials on May 14-15.

              The task force was set up to make recommendations on how to
              support and develop the legal flow of goods in the region to help
              provide better markets for alternative crops from opium poppy
              cultivation areas.

              The officials - from Burma, Cambodia, China, Laos, Thailand
              and Vietnam - who reviewed the regional drug situation also
              pledged to meet more often to improve information sharing and
              cooperation to stem the flow of illicit drugs.

              They also reaffirmed their commitment to work closer with health
              officials in information sharing, preventive education and
              addiction treatment, to curb the spread of HIV/Aids through
              drug use by injection.

              The six countries and the UN International Drug Control
              Programme initiated an action plan for drug control cooperation
              in supply and demand reduction, and law enforcement in 1995.
              It has 12 regional projects worth some US$15 million.




                                 




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