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