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PM wants Burma help on drugs




Politics 
PM wants Burma help on drugs
PRIME Minister Chuan Leekpai will seek cooperation from Burmese junta leader
Gen Than Shwe in destroying drug factories along the common border in an
attempt to stop drugs spreading to the Thai market, government spokesman
Akapol
Sorasuchart said yesterday. 
With their long shared border, Thailand and Burma should cooperate more
closely
on the suppression of narcotics, which have a serious impact on their
societies, Akapol said. 
Chuan will meet Than Shwe, the chairman of the ruling Burmese State Peace and
Development Council (SPDC), in Chiang Rai province on Monday. The visit
will be
Than Shwe's first to Thailand on a bilateral basis for a decade. 
''The Thai premier will seek cooperation from his counterpart on
drug-suppression issues, particularly on the factories along the border,
because they produce heroin and other narcotics that spread to Thailand,'' the
spokesman said. 
Thailand selected Chiang Rai as a venue for the meeting because the
province is
adjacent to the so-called Golden Triangle, which produces much of the
narcotics
on the world market, an informed source said. Tackling narcotics problems will
be the priority issue at their meeting, the source added. 
Akapol said that Chuan would show Than Shwe many Royal projects in Chiang Rai,
including substitute-crop programmes. 
Meanwhile Payont Pantsri, secretary general of the Office of the Narcotics
Control Board, said there were about 200 villages in four provinces, Chiang
Mai, Chiang Rai, Phayao and Mae Hong Son, used as transit points for narcotics
from Burma en route to markets in Thailand and other countries. 
''Thailand and Burma have been active in suppressing the drug problem.
However,
as of now, there are many areas where we have no access, which obstructs our
efforts to suppress the drug problem,'' Payont said. 
The meeting between the Thai and Burmese premiers on Monday, during which they
will endorse further cooperation in drug suppression, will act as a ''green
light'' in the fight against drugs, Payont said. ''Once the leaders agree that
their priority will be narcotics suppression, their officials will be able to
follow suit,'' Payont said. 
He commented that the style of bilateral discussions between Thailand and its
neighbours should be different from those with the United States and the

European Union. ''In discussions with neighbouring countries an agenda on the
table does not work. To make the discussion successful, relations among
officials and authorities concerned must be established,'' Payont added. 
After the meeting in Chiang Rai, Than Shwe will fly to Bangkok in the
afternoon
for an audience with His Majesty the King. Chuan will later host a dinner for
the Burmese leader at Government House. 
Than Shwe and his 40-strong delegation will visit an agro-industrial
factory in
Saraburi on Tuesday morning before flying back to Burma. 
Among others in the high-level Burmese team are SPDC First Secretary Lt-Gen
Khin Nyunt, Foreign Minister U Win Aung, Planning Minister David Abel,
Interior
Minister Col Tin Hlaing, Hotel and Tourism Minister Maj-Gen Saw Lwin, Border,
Ethnic and Development Minister Maj-Gen Thein Nyunt and Deputy Foreign
Minister
U Khin Maung Win. 
PIYANART SRIVALO, 
MARISA CHIMPRABHA 
The Nation