Bar on media liaison as heroin talk

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Subject: Bar on media liaison as heroin talks begin

Bar on media liaison as heroin talks begin

The Sydney Morning Herald
Wednesday, February 24, 1999
By CRAIG SKEHAN, in Phnom Penh

Australian Federal Police (AFP) officers attending a diplomatically
sensitive
conference in Burma on heroin trafficking have been barred by their
superiors
from talking to the media.

"We have been told not to talk to the press in regard to the conference and
that
any comment will come from AFP headquarters in Canberra," said police
liaison officer Kevin McTavish.

The crackdown on the Australian officers discussing details of the gathering
follows claims that the agenda downplays key issues such as money laundering
and official corruption in Burma.

Attendance at yesterday's opening of the conference by the Australian
Ambassador in Rangoon, Ms Lyndell McLean, was criticised by one of
Burma's main pro-democracy groups.

Mr Soe Aung, head of the foreign policy division of the All Burma Students'
Democratic Front, said the high-level diplomatic representation afforded
legitimacy to the country's repressive military regime.

He said Ms McLean's attendance could also lend credibility to a deeply
flawed
conference which the military was attempting to use as a propaganda tool. Mr
Soe Aung praised the United States and a number of European countries,
including Britain, for boycotting the conference on the grounds that
elements of
the military elite had links with major heroin traffickers.

"We are very disappointed that Australia is attending the conference," Mr
Soe
Aung said. "I don't think there will be anything gained in terms of the
reduction
of heroin trafficking.

"If the military was genuine, they would let United Nations officials travel
to any
part of the country where opium crops are being grown."

He said the regime deliberately made it difficult for such officials to
visit areas
where pro-Government militias were involved in heroin.

Democracy leaders earlier this month wrote to the Australian Minister for
Foreign Affairs, Mr Downer, urging him to boycott the conference.

However, Mr Downer defended Australia's stance on the grounds that the
interchange of information in Rangoon could assist efforts to stem large

flows of
Burmese heroin to Australia.

Ms McLean said it was "quite appropriate" for Australia to attend. "No
individual country can deal with the problem - there has to be co-operation
between law enforcement agencies," she said.