Thailand a 'bad neighbor'

Thailand a 'bad neighbor'

YANGON (AFP): Myanmar on Sunday condemned Thailand as a bad neighbor for covering up its failure to address the nation's drugs crisis by shifting the blame onto Myanmar.

"The Thai government officials have never made efforts to effectively control the problem," the military regime said in an official information sheet.

"It is comprehensible to all that Thai government officials, instead of finding ways and means to solve their own problem by themselves, issued news reports deliberately putting the blame on Myanmar."

The official statement ticked off Thailand for discussing the drugs issue via the media rather than through proper channels set up to solve bilateral problems.

"Thus their act should be regarded as an act which is violating the principles of good neighborliness".

The comments were the latest salvo in a brewing row between the two countries over the production of methamphetamines on Myanmar soil by Yangon-allied ethnic armies.

In what the Thai military has described as the nation's top security threat, some 700 million methamphetamines pills are estimated to make their way into Thailand each year, feeding a massive addiction problem.

Thailand's new Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra fired the opening shot in the war of words earlier this month by declaring a "war on drugs" and ordering officials to find ways to close down the narcotics trade.

The premier said he would demand explanations from Myanmar's generals over the deadly flow of methamphetamines from jungle refineries which also churn out vast quantities of heroin.

Myanmar lashed out at the tough new approach, saying Thailand should put its own house in order before trying to use its neighbor as a "scapegoat" for its drugs problems.

As the sparring continued, the Thai foreign ministry issued a strongly worded statement that criticized the junta for its tetchy response to the Thai initiative and invited Myanmar to show the international community it was serious about fighting drugs.

International drug enforcement authorities also blame Myanmar for turning a blind eye to drugs production within its borders, in return for cease-fire with the ethnic armies that control the trade.