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Reuters-Albright chides Myanmar, pr



Subject: Reuters-Albright chides Myanmar, praises Thailand on drugs

Albright chides Myanmar, praises Thailand on drugs
12:31 a.m. Mar 03, 1999 Eastern
By Jonathan Wright

NONG HOI, Thailand, March 3 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine
Albright said on Wednesday the success of opium eradication projects in
Thailand contrasted markedly with efforts made in neighbouring Myanmar.

Albright, on the second day of a visit to Thailand, toured this ethnic Hmong
hilltribe village close to the Myanmar border which used to earn its living
from opium until the introduction of a crop substitution project sponsored
by the Thai royal family.

``The reason it's important to be here is exactly the reason that Nong Hoi
is here -- improving the lives of the hilltribes and encouraging crop
substitition,'' she said.

``This is a marked contrast to the country of Burma (Myanmar), where they
are not doing the kind of things you are doing here,'' she said after
watching a dance performance by local children.

Albright donated a computer, a laser printer and soccer balls to a local
school.

``The message is we must do all we can to provide alternatives to the dead
end of drugs,'' she said. ``Here in Nong Hoi you are saying no to narcotics
and yes to vegetables and flowers, computers and books.''

Locals said they were better off thanks to the new crops they were growing.

One farmer said he used to earn just 4,000 baht ($108) a year growing opium,
whereas he now made 50,000 from vegetables.

``It isn't as if they are losing money,'' Albright said. ``They're making
money from vegetables -- that's a very good story.''

The United States has provided $1.3 million for crop substitution projects
in Thailand over the past three years. It says Thailand has one of the most
successful narcotic crop control programmes in the world.

While Thai opium output has dwindled in the past two decades, military ruled
Myanmar remains one of the world's main sources of the drug, which is
refined to make heroin.

The State Department said in a report last month that Myanmar's opium
production fell last year, partly due to government efforts to eradicate the

crop.

But it said some 130,300 hectares (321,700 acres) were under opium
cultivation in 1998, capable of yielding up to 1,750 tonnes of opium gum, or
175 tonnes of heroin.

In Nong Hoi, Albright also met girls receiving vocational training to help
them avoid lives in prostitution. She said it was essential to improve
women's rights.

``Advancing the status of women has to be central to American foreign
policy,'' she said. ``We are learning, but if there are to be improvements
in democracy then women have to be part of it.

``It's also essential that girls not be exploited, abused and exposed to
AIDS. It's important to fight back. NGOs are showing the way but governments
also have to help show there are alternatives to the dead ends of
prostitution and drugs.''

Albright is due in Bangkok later on Wednesday for an audience with King
Bhumibol Adulyadej and meetings with Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai and
Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan.