Thaksin says Myanmar ethnic army holds seven Thais<\/p>\n
BANGKOK (Reuters): Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said
\non Tuesday seven Thai officers missing along the Thai-Myanmar
\nborder since Sunday had been detained by an ethnic minority army
\nallied to Myanmar's military government.<\/p>\n
Thaksin told reporters the United Wa State Army (UWSA) was
\nholding the Thais, military and civilian anti-narcotics
\nofficials, in Myanmar. All seven were safe, he said.<\/p>\n
\"I have been told that they were arrested by the Wa and the
\nMyanmar government has promised full cooperation,\" Thaksin said.<\/p>\n
Seven Thai officials from the Office of the Narcotics Control
\nBoard (ONCB) and the Ministry of Defense, including one female
\nArmy colonel, went to Tachilek town in Myanmar on Sunday after
\nattending a drugs seminar in Chiang Mai, Thai officials said.<\/p>\n
Tumnu Sirisingha, head of the ONCB's northern office, said the
\nThai officers got permission from Myanmar police to enter
\nTachilek to survey drugs problems in the town, opposite the
\nnorthern Thai border town of Mae Sai.<\/p>\n
Tumnu told reporters the group might have been captured
\nbecause they were driving a suspicious-looking vehicle which had
\nheavily tinted windows and high powered radios.<\/p>\n
\"The Wa may have suspected them of spying or committing a
\nrobbery, so they captured them,\" he said.<\/p>\n
The UWSA is said by Thai authorities to be a major producer
\nand supplier to Thailand of methamphetamine tablets. Officials
\nsay as many as 800 million of the Myanmar-made stimulant pills
\ncould reach Thailand this year, from 500 million last year.<\/p>\n
Thai officials say most of the tablets are manufactured in
\nmakeshift laboratories in areas under the control of Myanmar
\nethnic minority groups which, like the Wa, have signed peace
\ndeals with the Yangon military government in return for relative
\nautonomy.<\/p>\n
The region forms part of the notorious \"Golden Triangle\" --
\nwhere the Thai, Myanmar and Laotian borders meet -- and is
\nbelieved by international agencies to be one of the world's top
\nheroin-producing regions.<\/p>\n
Thai narcotics experts say production of methamphetamines is
\nincreasingly supplanting opium and heroin there as the main
\nthreat.<\/p>\n
Thaksin has said fighting drugs is one of his government's top
\npriorities.<\/p>\n
Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman Norachit Sinhaseni said
\nBangkok had asked Yangon through diplomatic channels for help in
\nfinding the missing Thais.<\/p>\n
Myanmar officials had said their local authorities had already
\nsent out search parties to find the group, he said.<\/p>",
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