Burma must show it deserves drug aid

The decision by the Thaksin government last year to change its policy on Burma (Myanmar) has had several results. Tension has reduced noticeably.

(But) Burma remains a repressive dictatorship. The Rangoon (Yangon) junta has continued policies that encourage the smuggling and sale of drugs -- the top security threat to Thailand. A year of cosying up to Rangoon has ended, and the results are both discouraging and frightening.

In Thailand, addiction and the casual use of drugs are up, drug-related violence has increased and our army has increasingly become an anti-drug force. In Burma, drug warlords are free and the regime welcomes their investments. All of this should give pause to even the most idealistic foreign aid official.

But it appears a poorly considered program is under way to provide Burma with both respect and aid that it has failed to show it deserves.

The United Nations drug chief in Rangoon has called for a vast increase in foreign aid to Burma. One hopes that the optimism of DoiTung project director, M.R. Disnadda Dissakul, is matched by success. Disnadda has begun to try to replace opium with cash crops in areas controlled by the United Wa State Army, one of the world's most powerful drug cartels. Disnadda thinks he can make crop replacement work as well as it has in Thailand.

Jean-Luc Lemahieu of the UN International Drug Control Program believes Rangoon is gradually coming to the view that it should fight drug trafficking. That is an incredible leap in his logic.

His own agency reports the UWSA is increasing methamphetamine production. Experts believe the Wa will attempt to smuggle 800 million speed tablets this year, and all but the 15 percent seized by authorities will be sold on Thai streets.

Burma has replaced Afghanistan as the world's leading producer of both opium and heroin. The main problem of Burmese drug trafficking lies in Rangoon.

The junta openly protects drug traffickers. Burma's generals profit from the proceeds of drug laundries, and refuse to cooperate in cross-border attacks on drug producers.

Until they change such policies and begin to fight the drug scourge seriously, Rangoon's junta deserves neither aid nor respect.

-- The Bangkok Post