Myanmar says drug production rises, calls for world help
Myanmar says drug production rises, calls for world help
BANGKOK (AFP): Myanmar's foreign minister admitted Sunday that amphetamines production within its borders had risen this year, and said the international community must do more to help it combat the deadly trade.
Speaking to reporters on his arrival in Bangkok for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) foreign ministers' meeting which opens here on Monday, Myanmar's Win Aung said the amphetamine scourge was worsening.
"The production of amphetamine tablets has increased. More than 70 million tablets have been seized so far this year," he said after a meeting with his Thai counterpart Surin Pitsuwan.
"We need to tackle this cooperatively. Nobody should put the responsibility on only one government, on only one country. It is the responsibility of many, many countries too."
The Thai army estimates that 600 million amphetamine tablets -- known as ya baa or "crazy drug" here due to their catastrophic effects -- flooded over the porous border with Thailand last year.
Heroin trafficking is now yesterday's problem, and amphetamines have been named Thailand's number one national security threat. The United States has also said it is extremely concerned about the spread of the new drug.
Surin said that cooperation with Myanmar on dealing with the trafficking problem would be substantially stepped up.
"There are mechanisms already existing between the two countries. We have agreed that we will accelerate the meetings, exchanges and cooperation," he said.
Myanmar is widely accused of turning a blind eye to the ethnic armies who churn out heroin, amphetamines and ecstasy from refineries inside the border with Thailand.
In return, critics of the junta say, the rebel armies have agreed to fragile ceasefires with the military government.
The United States and many other Western states have imposed economic and political sanctions on Myanmar because of its military rule and alleged human rights violations and tolerance of the drug trade.
The head of the U.S. drugs control office Barry McCaffrey said here last month that his country was determined not to give Myanmar money to fight drugs.
"There are goals of democracy, rule of law and human rights that constrain us in what we can do to work with the current military regime," he said.
But Win Aung put the blame back in his neighbors' court Sunday, saying that the Myanmar drug trade did not exist in isolation.
"For instance, chemicals. Without chemicals how can you produce amphetamine tablets," he said, adding that without the flow of raw materials into its territory the trade would dry up. "These are complex questions," he said. "Most important is the will to tackle this problem, and we have the will."