Burma says 15 nations to join drugs

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Subject: Burma says 15 nations to join drugs seminar

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Burma says 15 nations to join drugs seminar

DESPITE the boycott by the US and European countries, Burma confirmed on
Monday
that 22 delegates from 15 countries will participate in the fourth
Interpol-sponsored conference on heroin beginning on Tuesday in Rangoon. 

It did not identify the countries by name, but said the 22 delegates will have
a chance to reassess international strategies in controlling the production
and
trafficking of heroin. 

They will also be able to observe first-hand the task confronting the
government and Rangoon's progress in tackling the problems, said an official
statement issued on Monday by the Burmese Embassy in Bangkok. 

It reiterated the calls for international assistance and cooperation to fight
the drug menace, saying members of the global community should ''put the
long-term interest of its people ahead of short-term political
consideration''.


''For, in the final analysis, it is not the fate of one regime or one nation
that is at stake; it is the future of humanity,'' it added. 

Rangoon has strongly criticised major western countries like the United
States,
Belgium, Britain, Denmark, Ireland, Luxembourg and the Netherlands for
deciding
to boycott the conference because of Burma's poor human rights record and the
continuing serious crackdown on democracy activists. 

Their withdrawal was also the result of an intensive campaign by transatlantic
Burmese action groups and exiled Burmese activists who likened the Feb 23-26
heroin conference to a convergence on human 
rights in Afghanistan. 

The campaign groups have blasted the Lyon-based Interpol for poor judgement in
picking Burma as the venue of the conference, saying the gathering would be a
blessing in disguise to the poor anti-narcotic record and performance of the
Burmese junta. 

According to the US State Department's report on drugs, opium production in
Burma doubled in 1989, a year after the military regime rose to power. The
country has since been the world's largest source of illicit opium and heroin,
yielding some 2,400 metric tonnes of opium gum annually. 

Thai anti-drug officials have confirmed that two senior officers from the
Police Narcotics Suppression Bureau will attend the conference. China, which
has faced a serious increase in drug trafficking from Burma, will be

represented by a five- or six-member team at the gathering. 

A senior official of the UN International Drug Control Programme (UNDCP) said
on Monday that he will attend the heroin conference, presenting a report on
the
overall regional drugs situation. 

He praised the Burmese junta's anti-drug efforts, saying the international
community should ''support Myanmar [Burma] in its fight against drugs''. 

The US has cut off its anti-narcotics assistance to Rangoon following the
bloody military crackdown on the pro-democracy movement in 1988. 

The Burmese official statement said Rangoon was committed ''to totally
eradicating the narcotic problem by the year 2014'' and that Burmese armed
ethnic groups in the country's northeastern Shan State ''also promised to make
their regions opium-free zones by that time''. 

Burma campaigners have charged the Burmese junta with tacitly turning a blind
eye to the armed groups' massive production and trafficking of the drugs in
return for their allegiance to the central authority. The regime was also
blamed for tolerating the laundering of illicit drug proceeds to the Burmese
economy. 

Meanwhile, several Burma campaign groups in Europe and the US, including Burma
Centrum Nederland and the Free Burma Coalition, are scrutinising the ownership
of several luxurious hotels in Rangoon which are said to be owned by major
drug
traffickers and dealers. 

They have strong suspicion that some of the hotels, which will serve as
lodging
to international delegates, might have been constructed with proceeds from
drugs. 

BY YINDEE LERTCHAROENCHOK 
The Nation