ASEAN vows to make region drug-free

ASEAN vows to make region drug-free

MANILA (Agencies): Drug trafficking in Southeast Asia, already linked to crimes such as arms smuggling, could worsen and cause political and security threats in the region, officials said in an anti-drug accord signed yesterday.

The declaration, which sets the goal of a drug-free region by the year 2020, was signed by the foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) at the end of their two-day annual meeting in Manila.

ASEAN's campaign to eradicate illegal drugs has been boosted by the admission into the group last year of Myanmar and Laos, which together with Thailand form the "Golden Triangle," the source of 60 percent of the heroin reaching the United States.

"It's getting worse," Philippine Foreign Assistant Secretary Ernesto Llamas said of the region's drug problem. The Philippines, itself burdened by serious drug abuse, initiated the declaration.

In the statement ASEAN's nine member countries said they would try their utmost to eradicate drug production, processing, trafficking and use. They agreed to strengthen links with international narcotics agencies, toughen anti-narcotics laws and share information on drug trade.

The ministers also agreed to cooperate in investigating, prosecuting and seizing the properties of drug traffickers.

The statement also proposes the promotion of alternative livelihoods for people who currently depend on the drug trade.

Llamas said almost all ASEAN countries have growing drug problems except for Singapore. The United Nations Drug Control Program (UNDCP) says Myanmar and Afghanistan together accounted for 90 percent of the world's illicit opium production in 1996/97.

Myanmar Foreign Minister U Ohn Gyaw told the ASEAN meeting that "Over the last 10 years more than 760 security personnel have sacrificed their lives and more than 2,200 were wounded in counter-narcotic operations." He added the government was trying to provide an alternative livelihood for farmers who had traditionally relied on the opium poppy. But a pressure group called the Alternative ASEAN Network on Burma says the country is showing "little real effort to halt the production and smuggling of heroin and amphetamines".

Raw opium fetches high prices and can be stored for years, making it a highly practical proposition for growers in remote areas with poor transport. Myanmar says about 81,000 hectares were planted to opium this year and the yield was likely to be 600-800 tons.