[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index
][Thread Index
]
Albright Attacks Burmese Drug Trad
- Subject: Albright Attacks Burmese Drug Trad
- From: moe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 28 Jul 1997 16:37:00
Subject: Albright Attacks Burmese Drug Trade
Albright Attacks Burmese Drug Trade
By Laura Myers
Associated Press Writer
Monday, July 28, 1997; 6:12 a.m. EDT
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) -- Secretary of State
Madeleine Albright urged Southeast Asian nations
today to
attack the region's pervasive narcotics trade by
refusing to deal
with drug-tainted Burmese businesses.
``Narcotics production has grown in Burma year
after year,
defying every international effort to solve the
problem,''
Albright said in a statement at a post-ministerial
conference of
nations with a stake in Asia.
``As a result, drug traffickers who once spent
their days leading
mule trains down jungle tracks are now leading
lights in
Burma's new market economy and leading figures in
its new
political order.''
Burmese Foreign Minister Ohn Gyaw responded with a
presentation on what his country is doing to halt
the drug trade,
but a European Union official, speaking on condition of
anonymity, said he and others were skeptical.
In the closed meeting, Albright also urged
Southeast Asian
nations to liberalize trade in financial services
such as banking
and insurance.
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, in turn,
continued his days-long rampage against Western
speculators
he blames for recent currency plunges in the
region, said
officials at the meeting. Over the weekend he cited
American
businessman George Soros, saying Soros was punishing
Southeast Asia for its closer ties to Burma. Soros
denies the
charge.
Albright, putting aside her prepared text, told
Mahathir it was
impossible for one person to achieve such damage,
said the
officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
In Burma, the country's $1 billion annual drug
trade -- mostly in
opium and its product heroin -- matches its legal
exports,
according to the U.S. embassy in Rangoon, the capital.
The Clinton administration has tried to isolate
Burma's military
regime, which came to power in a 1988 coup and
refused to
recognize 1989 election results. In April,
Washington imposed
a ban on new U.S. investment in Burma.
Albright charged that Burma's drug traffickers, with
government encouragement, are laundering profits
through
Burmese banks and companies, including some that
are joint
ventures with foreign firms.
``Drug money has become so pervasive in Burma that
it taints
legitimate investment and threatens the region as a
whole,''
Albright argued. ``This is a challenge we must face
together --
and another reminder that it will be hard to do
normal business
in Burma until a climate of law is restored.''
Albright praised efforts in Thailand and Laos -- whose
crossroads with Burma makes up the infamous ``Golden
Triangle'' of the narcotics trade -- for
eradicating drug plants
and encouraging cultivation of legal crops.
Albright's statement came during a closed meeting
of the
foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast
Asian
Nations and their ``dialogue partners'' -- the
United States,
Canada, the European Union, Russia, India, China, South
Korea, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.
Members of the 30-year-old ASEAN are Brunei, Indonesia,
Malaysia, Thailand, Burma, Laos, Singapore, Vietnam
and the
Philippines.
In a separate U.S.-ASEAN meeting, Albright asked the
nations to consider allowing the 10 partner
countries to form a
``Friends of Cambodia'' group to monitor progress
in South
Asia's mediation of the crisis. The coalition
government fell in a
coup July 5-6. Taking the lead role, ASEAN is
working on a
political settlement to ensure free elections next
May.
Later in the day, Albright planned to meet with
South Korean
Foreign Minister Yu Chong-ha, partly to discuss the
upcoming
four-party peace talks with North Korea and China
in New
York in early August.
She also intended to talk with Indonesian Foreign
Minister Ali
Alatas. The issue of human rights in East Timor was
expected
to come up.
Today was the second day in a row Albright scored
Burma,
which this year joined ASEAN despite U.S. objections.
On Sunday, she confronted Burmese Foreign Minister Ohn
Gyaw in a closed meeting in which the Burma
official defended
the military regime during a speech to his
counterparts that a
U.S. official called ``Orwellian.''
``Burma is the only member of ASEAN singled out by the
U.N. General Assembly for refusing to honor
election results,
the only member where the state and society are
fundamentally
at odds,'' Albright said.
Albright urged ASEAN nations to encourage reforms and
support Burma's democratic opponents, especially
Aung San
Suu Kyi. The 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner, who was
under
house arrest for six years, won election in 1989
but has not
been allowed to take office.
The Burmese government, responding to criticism,
issued a
statement over the Internet that called its
admittance to
ASEAN a ``victory over the divisive legacies of
different
colonial masters that ruled the region.''