AP: Drugs in Burma

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 Burmese Officials Say Amphetamines Seizures Rising 
 With BC-Asia-Drug Menace 
   RANGOON, Burma (AP) _ Burma's military regime declared Wednesday
that seizures of amphetamines have soared recently in the so-called
Golden Triangle, long the world's top opium-producing area.
   ``It is necessary that we take special measures to see that the
drop in production of opiates is not replaced by the entry of
amphetamines,'' Home Minister Lt. Gen. Mya Thin said.
   Mya Thin, speaking at a ceremony for the U.N. International Day
Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, pledged Burma would
fight narcotics with or without outside help.
   Burma long has been the world's chief opium source, producing 59
percent of the world's crop, according to U.S. authorities. Much
ends up on the streets of the United States and Europe, fueling a
new heroin epidemic.
   Recent cease-fires with ethnic rebels and drug lords in the
rugged northeastern portion of the country that adjoins Thailand
and Laos _ the Golden Triangle _ have done little to stem the opium
flow, international drug experts say.
   Burmese officials say opium production has dropped. But Mya Thin
indicated that traffickers may be shifting to amphetamines, as
evidenced by an alarming recent increase in seizures of such drugs
and chemicals to make them.
   Top government generals, diplomats, U.N. agency representatives
and journalists attended the speech.
   Mya Thin said Burma's efforts to eradicate opium had gone
unrecognized, especially by the United States, but said that the
country would press ahead.
   ``We openly declare we will continue to the best of our ability
to combat, as a national concern, the scourge that endangers all of
mankind,'' Mya Thin said.
   Mya Thin said that to date, 30 million kyats (dlrs 5 million)
had been seized under 1993 legislation enabling the confiscation of
property linked to drug traffickers.
   Washington has demanded that Burma extradite Khun Sa, a
notorious ethnic Shan rebel and opium trafficker who surrendered to
the government last year. Burma has given no indication it might do
so.
   
261236 Jun GMT