Bkk Post - Editorial-Turning a blin

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Subject: Bkk Post - Editorial-Turning a blind eye to a serious threat

Bangkok Post - July 27, 1999.
Turning a blind eye to a serious threat

Beaming, they held hands in the manner of a chorus line and declared that
the Association of Southeast Asian Nations was as united as ever, though
licking its wounds after the economic drubbing of recent years. Later, clad
in the batik finery that symbolises the 10-member grouping's informal side,
the foreign ministers declared they were holding to the cherished policy of
non-interference.

The venue was the 32nd Asean Ministerial Meeting, and thoroughly enjoying
the occasion was the team from the State Peace and Development Council,
which has been accorded the right to represent the people of Burma, whose
elected representatives were conspicuous by their absence. No Asean shindig
would be complete without the photo sessions, the batik or re-affirmation of
the policy of non-interference, which is little more than a device to avoid
unpleasant questions about the consequences of the earlier policy of
constructive engagement.

But each time the nabobs of Asean get together, the policy is brought into
question because of the inability of the regime in Rangoon to put a stop to
a form of interference that is causing desperately serious problems in
countries such as our own. The Rangoon regime, through its friends in the
United Wa State Army, is presiding over a massive industry which floods
Thailand with methamphetamines, or speed. It is all very well for ministers
of the 10-member grouping to choose to keep quiet about such matters in the
interests of harmony or diplomatic sensitivities but the realities on the
ground call for an uncompromising approach.

Critics of the addition of the Rangoon regime to the regional grouping
warned with good cause that the junta's new legitimacy would do nothing to
improve conditions for the Burmese people nor improve the conduct of the
generals. In the two years since Rangoon was admitted, our northern border
has become a gateway for the import of narcotics that have resulted in such
a national menace. As though that were not bad enough, our border areas have
become a security nightmare in which troops, villagers, troops and police
have been fired upon by narco-terrorists whose backers are awash with drug

profits and the weaponry and influence they bring.

The junta, which in one form or another has managed to devastate a
once-thriving economy, manages somehow to maintain an alarmingly large and
well-equipped army. And yet it says that it has no control over border
areas, particularly those of the methamphetamine-producing United Wa State
Army, which takes a stridently anti-drugs line with its own people.

This may in part be explained by Rangoon's policy to offer groups such as
the Wa a degree of autonomy and development assistance, which does not mean
hand-outs so much as a licence to make money through operations involving
the manufacture of drugs and money-laundering. An end to Rangoon's problems
with insurgencies has turned into a headache for neighbours such as
Thailand, which is even providing labour for the extravagant development
programme being carried out by the Wa with profits made from drug sales
here.

The longer the Wa are allowed to reap massive profits from their drugs
output, the more formidable they will become and the greater the threat to
Thailand. We are seeing, opposite Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai provinces, the
establishment of drugs-funded bastions that can only be likened to those of
the cocaine cartels of Colombia. The army chief is absolutely right to warn
that the benefits of keeping open border points to facilitate legal trade
are vastly outweighed by the social and economic price to be paid for the
one-way traffic in narcotics. As a member of Asean, Rangoon has a lot of
explaining to do, and Asean should remove its blinkers and demand an end to
its unacceptable conduct.