SE Asia intensifies antidrug campaigns

SE Asia intensifies antidrug campaigns

Southeast Asian officials met on Monday to intensify their fight
against drug trafficking and abuse while a Singaporean minister
said that efforts so far have put the brakes on rising rates of
amphetamine abuse in the region.

Ho Peng Kee, Senior Minister of State for Law and Home
Affairs, said joint training programs had helped law enforcement
agencies across the region to crack down on the drug problem.

Ho said that after years of rising amphetamine abuse, United
Nations statistics showed that the "situation in East and
Southeast Asia has stabilized. This is a clear indication that
our efforts at drug prevention are working."

But he said more work was needed, and "we have to enhance our
cooperation in areas such as joint investigations and
operations."

Officials from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or
ASEAN, are meeting in Singapore for a five-day training program
to ratchet up joint cooperation programs to fight drug abuse.

Thailand last year launched a 10-month crackdown on illegal
drugs in which nearly 2,300 people were killed, most of them
described by officials as suspected drug traffickers. Media
reports and human rights groups called the deaths summary
executions. Synthetic drug abusers also topped the list of
arrests for the first time in Singapore in 2003.

Ho's comments come after the United States recently listed
Laos and Myanmar - two members of the infamous Golden Triangle -
on its watchlist for major drug producing and drug transit
countries. Thailand is the third country in the Golden Triangle
but was removed from Washington's list.

Singapore Ministry of Home Affairs spokesman Freddy Hong said
27 senior officials from all 10 ASEAN countries are attending the
five-day workshop.

ASEAN comprises Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand,
Indonesia, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Brunei. -- AP