Khin Nyunt defend Khun Sa now clean

[tinkyi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Myanmar maintains ex-druglord Khun Sa now clean
07:21 a.m. Jul 23, 1999 Eastern
BANGKOK, July 23 (Reuters) - Myanmar on Friday rejected as ``speculation''
Thai narcotics officials claims that retired Golden Triangle drug baron Khun
Sa is back in business and said he was clean and being made a scapegoat.

Myanmar officials said Khun Sa gave up his lucrative trade after
surrendering to the Myanmar military government four years ago and now lives
in the capital Yangon under the protection of the military there.

``There have been reports alleging the government of Myanmar of being
involved in drug trafficking. Now the allegation is back to Khun Sa. It is
quite surprising how quickly people can jump to conclusions based on
speculation,'' a government statement said.

Statements by Thai officials that there were signs Khun Sa was involved
again in drugs were ``not helpful in the drug eradication scheme which the
government was implementing with international cooperation,'' the Myanmar
statement said.

``In a way it sounds merely like making a scapegoat out of the man who had
washed his hands of drugs,'' it added.

Senior officials of Thailand's Office of Narcotics Control Board (ONCB) told
reporters in northern Chiang Mai on Thursday that there were signs Khun Sa
had returned to the drug trade in the Triangle.

The half-Shan, half-Chinese former commander of the separatist Mong Tai Army
in Myanmar's northeastern Shan state had returned to the drug trade with his
son, Charm Herng, in the opium growing Triangle, they said.

The poppy growing Golden Triangle straddles the borders of Myanmar, Thailand
and Laos.

Khun Sa, wanted on drug trafficking charges by the United States, was widely
reported in 1995 to have given up the drug trade after his surrender.

When Khun Sa surrendered, another rebel group from the Shan state called the
United Wa State Army (UWSA) took over his drugs trade. Narcotics experts say
the UWSA is heavily involved in drug trafficking despite having reached a
ceasefire with Yangon.

But Thai officials said that remnants of Khun Sa's now disbanded army had
become active again in drug producing and trafficking from the Triangle.