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Quandary on Burma and Drugs



                 NOTES FROM HERE AND THERE
                 Quandary on Burma and Drugs

                 Lewis Dolinsky 
                                                         
                                                         Wednesday, December 15,
                                                         1999 



                 Members of Burma's junta, including one of its big
                 three, were pleasant to South Bay Republican Tom
                 Campbell when he met them recently in Rangoon.
                 They want an end to the U.S. ban on new investment
                 in Burma; he wants opium poppies eradicated, or at
                 least a serious attempt. If drugs really can be stopped
                 at the source, he came to the right place. As much as
                 50 percent of the world's heroin originates in Burma,
                 much of it in areas where the junta has negotiated
                 ``uneasy truces'' (Campbell's phrase) with tribal
                 armies. 

                 Campbell and two other congressmen -- Democrat
                 Donald Payne of New Jersey and Republican John
                 Cooksey of Louisiana -- were escorted to northern
                 Burma by Colonel Kyaw Thein, who had negotiated
                 many of the cease-fires (which do not include the
                 Karen ethnic group). When Campbell's party
                 reached territory held by the NDAA (National
                 Democratic Alliance Army), the colonel stopped
                 answering questions and the NDAA started doing
                 the talking. ``I went in with the government,''
                 Campbell said in a telephone interview, ``but they
                 (the tribesmen) were the law.'' 

                 Legitimate enterprise in these areas is geared not to
                 Rangoon but to China. In Mongla, Campbell saw a
                 casino and tourist hotel, a Catholic church and
                 Buddhist pagoda. A sugar factory had shut down;
                 China has plenty. 

                 Campbell doesn't want to be a ``one-day wonder''
                 (instant expert), and he is vague on some details. But
                 he notes that farmers could grow buckwheat or rice
                 instead of poppies, but then what? There are no
                 roads to get a crop to Rangoon. If the Chinese don't
                 want it, there's no buyer. But there is always a
                 market for opiate. A middleman comes to the door
                 and pays up front, though not generously. 

                 Poppy cultivation has dropped in Burma. Democracy
                 leader Aung San Suu Kyi (``phenomenal, great
                 presence, I have nothing but admiration for her'')
                 attributes this decrease to drought. She told Campbell
                 that the junta, if it had the will, could stamp out poppy
                 production as it has stamped out human rights. She
                 says that nothing but humanitarian aid should come
                 into Burma, that when the government falls, the
                 tribes will be part of the political process and won't
                 need bullets, or drug money to buy them. The West
                 will want to invest in a democracy. 

                 Campbell has no reason to think that the junta will
                 fall. He acknowledges that investment needed to
                 provide roads to get rice to market will shore up a
                 brutal regime that voided elections won by Suu Kyi's
                 party in 1988. He also knows that elements within
                 the government and military profit from drugs;
                 Burma runs on drugs. But he was told by neighboring
                 Thailand's deputy foreign minister, Sukhumbhand
                 Paribatra, ``We don't approve of the government of
                 Burma, but we do work with them on drug
                 eradication and you should be open to doing the
                 same.'' Campbell is undecided. A meeting with the
                 State Department on Monday may help make up his
                 mind. 

                 Since returning December 2 from his Asian tour -- a
                 day in Thailand, five in Vietnam, four in Burma --
                 Campbell has been running hard for the GOP Senate
                 nomination to oppose Democratic incumbent Dianne
                 Feinstein. Burma policy is not expected to play a big
                 part in that election. Drug policy might.