Mekong countries ink antinarcotics projects
Mekong countries ink antinarcotics projects
BANGKOK (AFP): Five countries of Southeast Asia's Mekong
subregion signed three new UN projects here yesterday to boost
cooperation in the fight against narcotics, but turmoil at home
prevented Cambodia from giving immediate approval.
Ministers from Myanmar, China, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam
agreed to implement the projects to train law enforcement
officials, improve intelligence-sharing and to strengthen the
judicial capacity to bring drug traffickers to justice.
But Cambodia's co-interior minister, Sar Kheng, was unable to
attend because of the troubles at home. He would sign the
necessary documents in Cambodia "very soon," the country's top
narcotics official said.
"Sar Kheng was meant to sign ... but the (Phnom Penh) airport
was closed," Police General Skadavy Lyroun told reporters at the
close of the three-day meeting to discuss subregional cooperation
on drug control.
Phnom Penh was rocked by fighting that killed at least 48
people at the weekend between troops of the rival Cambodian co-
premiers. The city's airport was temporarily closed because of
the clashes.
The new projects, worth a total of US$4.3 million, are part of
a 12-project regional action plan that was agreed upon by the six
countries at their first ministerial meeting on fighting
narcotics in Beijing in 1995.
The five countries yesterday also approved a declaration to
tackle drug abuse, trafficking and drug production, in a region
which produces the bulk of the world's opium and heroin.
UN officials said that bilateral and regional cooperation was
improving between the six countries which face a growing threat
from the spread of narcotics, particularly amphetamines, and
precursor chemicals.
"There has been a lot of progress, both in terms of the
implementation of the action plan and the political commitment to
fight drugs," said Vincent McClean, director of the regional
center of the UN International Drug Control Program in Bangkok.
Another $15.5 million development project aimed at cutting
opium production in the southern Wa region of Shan state in
eastern Burma also got the go-ahead Friday.
Centered on one of the main opium-growing regions in Burma --
the world's largest producer of the drug -- the project includes
a component for monitoring the poppy crop across the whole Wa
region, McClean said.
Myanmar has come under fire for its alleged failure to
clampdown on narcotics production and trafficking by ethnic
minorities such as the Wa which have reached cease-fires with the
ruling junta.