Regarding Interpol

[moe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Regarding Interpol's Conference In Burma
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4th Interpol Heroin Conference in Yangon, Myanmar, 23-26 February
At the last Interpol General Assembly (Cairo, 1998), Myanmar offered to host
the 4th International Heroin Conference. The international community of
delegates, from all Interpol member countries, agreed unanimously to the
proposal.

The Interpol meeting scheduled for 23-26 February 1999 is a follow-up to a
previous successful meeting convened by the government of the Union of
Myanmar, the Government of Japan and the United Nations Drug Control
Programme (UNDCP) on 31 March and 1 April 1998 on the theme of 'Alternative
development strategies to reduce opium poppy cultivation in the region'.
This meeting was attended by police liaison officers, officials from drug
law enforcement bodies and diplomats representing 22 countries from East
Asia and the Pacific (China, Japan, Republic of Korea, Cambodia, Indonesia,
Laos People's Democratic Republic, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam
and Australia), South Asia (Bangladesh and India), Europe (France, Germany,
Italy, the Russian Federation, Spain, United Kingdom) and North America
(Canada and the United States), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP),
UNDCP and the ICPO-Interpol. As a result of this meeting, the United States
and Japan pledged US$3 million and US$700,000 respectively for this purpose.

At the UN special session in New York (June 1998), 150 UN member countries,
including Myanmar, all agreed that the only way forward in the worldwide
fight against drug trafficking was through co-operation by all the countries
that were affected one way or another by global drug use and trafficking.
The participants agreed on a plan for the destruction of coca and opium
plantations by the year 2008.

Interpol is an intergovernmental organisation and a central service provider
for the Interpol community of 177 member countries. Interpol's goal in
organising technical conferences of this nature is to foster police
co-operation and to strengthen the efficiency of police services in
combating drug production, trafficking and abuse. A central aim of Interpol
is to ensure and promote the widest possible mutual assistance between all
police authorities within the limits of the laws existing in the different
countries and in the spirit of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
(Article 2 of the Constitution), without intervening in matters of a

political, military, racial or religious nature (Article 3).

Myanmar's offer to host this meeting fits well into Interpol's strategy of
engaging in the focal areas of the drugs problem.

The international press has already expressed its interest in Myanmar as a
significant drug producing region and as the host country of this 4th
International Interpol Conference on Heroin. With the conference in Myanmar,
the press can profit by getting the true picture of police activities in the
region and ask challenging questions of the Myanmar Government as to their
expressed intent to improve their effectiveness in drug control efforts.
Therefore, this meeting offers an appropriate as well as important occasion
to increase the awareness of all Interpol member countries about the
problems in source countries and how Myanmar is engaged in eradication
programmes (especially in the north-eastern regions of the Shan state) and
in other drug control activities. 

We hope the above makes Interpol's decision clearer. We would also like to
add that the Organization never ignores the innumerable different national
political situations around the world; on the other hand, we do try to face
up to the facts. Do you really believe that a police organisation can change
or influence a national political situation where governments and the
international community have failed? Heroin abuse (and other drug abuse) is
acknowledged as being one of the main scourges of humanity as a whole. 

Interpol's main responsibility is to prevent drug production and
trafficking. How can the Organization be expected to have the slightest hope
of achieving this if it refuses contact with one of the world's main
producer countries? 

Far from condoning Myanmar's leaders, Interpol wants to make them face up to
their responsibilities and explain the reasons for the situation that now
exists in their country, so that we can establish co-operation and eliminate
the problem. 

We consider that even though our constructive efforts may seem idealistic,
they still deserve encouragement rather than criticism, which in this
particular case is mainly political. 
INTERPOL's
HEADQUARTERS  
Quai Charles de Gaulle 
69006 Lyon, France 
Telephone: (33) 4 72 44 70 00
Fax: (33) 4 72 44 71 63