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US Calls on Burma



/* Written 12:19 am  May  7, 1994 by johpa@xxxxxxx in igc:soc.cult.burma */
/* ---------- "US Calls on Burma" ---------- */
The following item was picked off the wire services.  At first I had an urge to
respond with sme caustic comments about Mr. Wirth, but then realized any
critical comments would be superfluous.  I mean, how pissed off can you get at
a guy who has just realized that there is heroin being sold in the streets of
LA or NYC. 


U.S. OFFICIAL CALLS FOR MORE DIALOGUE WITH BURMA 

    By Alan Elsner 
    WASHINGTON (Reuter) - A senior U.S. official called Monday for more
dialogue with the military government of Burma in an effort to slow a flood of
heroin into the United States. 
    State Department counsellor Tim Wirth told Reuters it was in U.S. national
interests to engage the Burmese government, despite its record of repression of
political opponents. 
    ``We have a national interest to become more engaged in Burma, engaged in
terms of dealing with that government and dealing with the narcotics issue,"
Wirth said. 
    The call by Wirth, a former Colorado Democratic senator whose
responsibities include narcotics, was likely to be controversial in the light
of current U.S. policy to hold relations with Burma at a relatively low level. 
    The United States cut off all aid to Burma in 1988 when the military
crushed a pro-democracy movement. For almost the past five years, the military
have been holding opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu
Kyi under house arrest. 
    Asked how the United States could balance its human rights policies with
the need to stem the flow o drugs, Wirth said there was no contest as far as he
was concerned. 
    ``Here we have narcotics coming in, heroin coming in. We're on the edge of
an epidemic of cheap and very pure heroin and that's going to demand more
aggressive action by us because that directly impinges on our national
interest," he said. 
    ``I'm thinking of young people on the streets of the United States of
America who are directly impacted by that. That should be our priority. 
  ``First of all start to deal with them. It seems to me you have to do that.
We are starting to see it (heroin) in New York and Los Angeles. What is our
first and primary interest? It is heroin and the streets of the United States,"
he said. 
    The United States, Wirth added, needed to send Drug Enforcement Agency
personnel to Burma and also step up cooperation with China and Thailand, which
say they are also extremely worried about the flow of heroin from Burma. 
    Another State Department official, who asked not to be named, said there
was unlikely to be much enthusiasm for Wirth's call. 
    The Burmese military recently allowed a U.S. delegation headed by a member
of Congress and including a New York Times reporter to visit Aung San Suu Kyi
for the first time. 
    She said she remained determined to continue her struggle for a democratic
Burma. 
    A recent State Department report on global drugs trafficking said that in
the past five years there had been a steady increase in the flow and purity of
heroin to the United States. It listed Burma as non-cooperative with U.S.
anti-narcotics efforts -- a determination which makes Burma ineligible for most
forms of U.S. aid. 
    The report said Burma accounted for 60 percent of worldwide opium
production and its government made little effort to combat or control
cultivation of the drug. 
    Opium poppies are mainly grown in the rugged, remote hills of northeast
Burma under the control of rebels. They refine the opium into heroin and ship
it out through Thailand, Indochina or China. 
 REUTER 


If anyone knows how to contact Mr. wirth, let us all know.


Happy Trails        Johpa