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BP: Time for Burma to be cooperativ



Subject: BP: Time for Burma to be cooperative



June 20, 1999 

Editorial

Time for Burma to be cooperative
There is much to criticise in the way our authorities approach, and
conduct, the
very important job of combatting the drug traffickers. But the reality is that
our efforts cannot be ultimately successful because of one of our neighbours.
Laos, Cambodia and of course Malaysia all are committed to fighting narcotics
kingpins. Alone among our neighbours, Burma continues to stand out as a
problem.
Interior Minister Sanan Kachornprasart made this point last week. He was
leading senior government officials on an inspection tour of the lower six
provinces of the North.
He claimed that the government's drug suppression campaign in the area was
successful-up to a point. Without Burmese cooperation, he said, Thailand
cannot
ultimately succeed in eliminating either drugs nor those who sell them.
In fairness, Maj-Gen Sanan is a politician. He also is a senior spokesman for
the government-and the government has made little headway against drug
traffickers in recent months. Drug sales are up, drug use by our youth is
increasing.
In addition, his National Narcotics Operation Centre has become locked in an
unseemly, distasteful bureaucratic conflict with the Office of Narcotics
Control Board. The ONCB, after years as the nation's uncorruptable anti-drug
leaders, suddenly finds itself fighting for survival, scarce funds and human
resources with Maj-Gen Sanan's policemen. It is yet another sign that the
government anti-drug policy is off the track.
After all of this, however, the fact remains that Thailand has become the main
victim of drug trafficking gangs which are based in Burma. Worse, the main
peddlers of both heroin and amphetamines almost unbelievably have good
relations with the Burmese junta. For reasons of political and economic
expediency, the Burmese dictators are cooperating with the main drug gangs,
both in Rangoon and up-country.
The United Wa State Army, for starters, has been given the green light by
Rangoon to do pretty much what it wants in northern Burma.
This group has been commandeered by a gang of drug traffickers. In return for
not attacking the Burmese army, and for suppressing separatist sentiment, the
UWSA leaders are allowed to make, sell, smuggle and profit from narcotics. The

millions of amphetamines the group makes mostly come to Thailand. Army
Commander Gen Surayud Chulanont last week said that our open border with the
UWSA put Thailand at risk.
Maj-Gen Sanan, to be sure, should be doing a far better job of policing the
border with the Wa. The group ordered the brutal murders of nine Thai
villagers
last month-and probably carried out the massacre as well. The number of drug
smugglers caught at the border is a black mark on the law enforcement
abilities
of our interior ministry. But the fact remains that if Burmese authorities
were
doing their duty instead of cooperating with murderers and drug traffickers,
life would be better in both countries.
The government has identified drug trafficking as the number one threat to
Thai
national security. The source of the heaviest flow of incoming drugs and the
region's top traffickers is well known. The question remains, then, why our
authorities refuse to confront Burma with hard questions.
Maj-Gen Sanan has correctly identified the problem. We cannot make significant
inroads against drugs or trafficking so long as our neighbour tolerates or
supports narcotics peddling on its territory. There is no sign of cooperation
from Burma. The shame is that there is no sign that our authorities are trying
to convince Burma it is in their own interest to move against their violent,
criminal friends in the drug business.

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© Copyright The Post Publishing Public Co., Ltd. 1999
Last Modified: Sun, Jun 20, 1999
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