Bkk Post-New pact in joint effort t

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Subject: Bkk Post-New pact in joint effort to control precursors

Bkk Post April 28, 1999.
NARCOTICS
New pact in joint effort to control precursors
Bhanravee Tansubhapol

Thailand, Laos and Burma yesterday agreed to launch by the year 2000
programmes for planning and evaluating joint projects designed to control
narcotics and precursor chemicals.

The three countries are expected to discuss the programmes in Bangkok later
this year, a Thai official said.

The agreement was reached at the end of a two-day meeting on cooperation to
control drug abuse.

The programmes will mark the first joint effort among the three neighbours.
They plan to call for concrete support in terms of technical and financial
assistance from the international community, according to the Thai official.

In a joint declaration made yesterday, the three countries also urged the
states which are the sources, transit and destination countries of precursor
chemicals to set up effective controls against precursors used in the
illicit production of narcotic drugs.

Laotian Minister to the President's Office Soubanh Srithirath yesterday said
Laos was increasingly attractive as a transit route for drug trafficking.

"Seizures indicate that traffickers now operate with a mixed portfolio
smuggling both heroin and amphetamine type stimulants (ATS) at the same
time," he said.

Mr Soubanh said these stimulants created more problems than poppy
cultivation as they required Vientiane to spend some US$4-6 million a year
to eliminate them.