New scent to US drug policy in Burm

[ausgeo@xxxxxxx]

Subject: New scent to US drug policy in Burma

Asia Times News

New scent to US drug policy in Myanmar

Stephen Brookes, Yangon, 9th July 1997

As heroin supplies rise on the streets of United States cities, Washington may 
be rethinking its strategy in fighting the narcotics trade out of Myanmar, 
according to sources close to the US State Department. 

Despite the large amounts of opium being grown in Myanmar, Washington has not 
provided counter-narcotics assistance to the ruling State Law and Order 
Restoration Council since 1988, accusing SLORC of inadequate counter-narcotics 
efforts. 

"The vast majority of heroin on the streets of the United States" is from 
Myanmar, where opium cultivation and drug trafficking are conducted "without 
any meaningful constraint by authorities", said US Secretary of State 
Madeleine Albright in March, justifying this year's decision to continue 
withholding aid. 

A much stronger statement last year by US Assistant Secretary of State for 
International Narcotics and Law-Enforcement Affairs (INL) Robert S Gelbard, 
who accused SLORC of turning a blind eye to drug producers, running 
money-laundering operations and profiting directly from the trade. 

"Burmese authorities have made no discernible efforts to improve their 
performance," wrote Gelbard in the November 21 issue of the Far Eastern 
Economic Review. "From a hardheaded, drug-control point of view, I have to 
conclude that SLORC has been part of the problem, not the solution." 

But Gelbard recently left INL for another position in the State Department, 
and some observers believe that General Barry McCaffrey, director of the US 
Office of National Drug Control Policy, will now take a larger role in shaping 
the administrations's approach to Myanmar. 

Shortly after assuming his position last year, McCaffrey summed up 
Washington's confusion over how to deal with Myanmar. "It is not clear to me 
what [the US] will do because for the present, the dominant concern in the US 
is ... the human rights situation confronting the Burmese people. And I don't 
know where we will go. 

"We are facing such a dilemma in our commitment to democracy. We simply don't 
have a way to move ahead as long as democracy and human rights issues remain 
in front of us," he said. 

One source close to McCaffrey, however, has said that the US drug tsar wants 
to inject a more "common sense" approach into US policy. 

"McCaffrey and others think that Washington's main concern should be about the 
rights of American citizens," said the source. "The price of heroin is coming 
down in the United States, and it's a very serious problem. There's much more 
heroin on the streets. And if that heroin is coming from Myanmar, then why not 
do whatever we can to stop it? How does decertifying Myanmar help the United 
States? It only makes matters worse." 

Analysts in Yangon suggest that Washington may try to provide anti-narcotics 
funding to Myanmar through multilateral channels, rather than bilateral aid. 
"Myanmar's entry into ASEAN presents a possibility for change," said one 
analyst. 

"Washington could say, 'Let's try an Asian solution to an Asian problem', and 
take a broad, regional approach to solving the problem."