Reuters-Myanmar ethnic leaders reje

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Subject: Reuters-Myanmar ethnic leaders reject drug accusations 

Myanmar ethnic leaders reject drug accusations
05:15 a.m. Apr 28, 1999 Eastern
By David Brunnstrom

MONGLA, Myanmar, April 28 (Reuters) - Ethnic leaders in Myanmar say
accusations by the United States that they are drug traffickers are
politically motivated and their consciences are clear.

Ethnic Shan and Wa leaders said they were trying to develop their regions
and find viable alternatives to opium cultivation.

``I don't think I need to defend myself at all. It's not worth refuting what
the United States has alleged about me,'' Sai Lin, of the Eastern Shan State
Army, told reporters on Tuesday.

He was talking to reporters during a rare tour of northeastern Myanmar's
Shan state organised for diplomats and journalists by Yangon's military
government to publicise its fight against drugs.

Celebrations on Tuesday marked the 10th anniversary of a ceasefire reached
between Sai Lin's guerrilla forces and the Yangon government.

The celebrations were held in Mongla, a town some 1,200 km (750 miles) north
of Yangon on Myanmar's border with China.

Sai Lin, a soft-spoken man of 50, tops a list of 10 Myanmar ethnic leaders
who the 1998 U.S. International Narcotics Control Strategy Report says are
believed to be involved in drug trafficking.

Pau Yuqiang of the United Wa State Army (UWSA), a group the United States
says remains ``heavily involved'' in the drug trade, told reporters at his
headquarters town of Pangsang on Monday he had no involvement in drugs.

He said the UWSA had succeeded in achieving a 30 percent reduction in opium
output in its region of 600,000 people in the past four years and was
confident it could make it totally drug-free by 2005.

``People may be saying this and that about us outside the country, but what
I would like to say is that we are doing our best here to stop this
narcotics problem. If drugs are still coming out of this area in 2005 then
you can come and blame me,'' he said.

Lo Hsing Han, a convicted trafficker who helped broker the ceasefire between
the government and ethnic groups in Shan State in 1989, rejected suggestions
he was still involved in the drug trade.

``I don't know why the American people still think I am involved in the
narcotics problem,'' he said at the Mongla ceremony. ``I would welcome
anyone to come here to see for themselves what is going on.''


The steep highlands of Shan State remain one of the world's leading sources
of opium and its derivative heroin. Yangon rejects charges it is doing too
little to combat opium production and has pledged complete opium eradication
by 2014.

Its ceasefires with ethnic groups allow them to retain a high degree of
autonomy and their armed forces pending a political settlement.

According to Washington, this means implicit tolerance of continued
narcotics trading. The government rejects this and says its eradication
target could be met sooner if countries like the United States resumed
direct drug control assistance, suspended because of Yangon's human rights
record.

In speeches at the ceasefire celebrations, Lieutenant-General Khin Nyunt,
the head of intelligence and considered to be the most powerful figure in
the military government, praised development efforts of the ethnic leaders
and hit out at ``neo-colonialist countries'' for failing to support them and
levelling false accusations.

He declined to speak to reporters.

Colonel Kyaw Thein, of Yangon's Committee for Drug Abuse Control, said
ethnic leaders were serious about eradication. He said of the U.S. charges:
``I think they are just making it up -- it's politically motivated.''

He said another Wa leader, Wei Xuekang, who has been indicted by the United
States for drug trafficking, was not under government control.

He also said the government had no intention of handing over Khun Sa,
another opium warlord wanted by Washington, as he had surrendered after
being given a guarantee against extradition.

The government maintains it has achieved a significant reduction in opium
poppy production and dismisses U.S. crop estimates as too high. However, it
concedes progress has been slow in the Wa area.

``There's been some decrease, but you can't say it has been a significant
decrease,'' Kyaw Thein said.

According to U.S. estimates, Myanmar's opium production fell 26 percent last
year to 1,750 tonnes due to eradication efforts and poor weather.

The government estimated production last year at 680 tonnes -- enough for 68
tonnes of heroin -- and predicts a sharp fall this year.