news in the Indian paper (r)

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Indo-Burma Agreement to Control Drug Trafficking
By the Asian Age Correspondent
The Asian Age
30 April 1998
 
New Delhi, April 29: India and Burma have decided to strengthen measures
to combat insurgency and to control the trafficking of narcotics through
the border in the Northeast.
 
This was decided in the high-level meeting of officials of the two
countries held in Rangoon over the past two days. Home secretary B.P.
Singh led the Indian delegation, while Burmese team was led by the deputy
home affairs minister, Brigadier General Thura Myint Maung. A home
ministry spokesman said both sides had "agreed upon a number of practical
steps to ensure cross border security and cooperation in the control of
narcotics" during discussions held on April 27 and 28.
 
The two sides also decided to work on "mutually beneficial cross border
projects," the spokesman said. This was the fifth such meeting of
officials from both countries. The meeting also reviewed the
implementation of decisions taken at the previous meet held in New Delhi
in 1996. 
 
Sources said the Indian team, sought the cooperation of Burmese
authorities in combating Northeastern insurgent groups which have bases in
Burma.
 
The Khaplang faction of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland,
against whom the Army recently launched a crackdown, reportedly has a
number of camps in Burmese territory bordering the Mon and Tuensang
districts of Nagaland and Tirap and Changlang districts of Arunachal
Pradesh. The Army crackdown began after the NSCN(K) violated the ceasefire
in Nagaland by killing eight soldiers in an ambush earlier this month.
 
Burma Info(CCN)
New Delhi.