Reuters-Thailand closes Myanmar ``d

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Subject: Reuters-Thailand closes Myanmar ``drugs'' border checkpoint 

Thailand closes Myanmar ``drugs'' border checkpoint
04:36 a.m. Aug 04, 1999 Eastern
BANGKOK, Aug 4 (Reuters) - Thailand ordered the closure on Wednesday of a
checkpoint on the Myanmar border which officials say has been a major
conduit for trafficking illegal drugs.

Secretary-general of Thailand's National Security Council (NSC) Kachadpai
Burusapatana told reporters the government was worried Myanmar ethnic rebels
had been moving narcotics through the checkpoint in Thailand's northern
Chiang Mai province.

``The NSC has decided to order the closure of San Ton Du checkpoint in order
to counter the ethnic minority rebels in Mong Yon (town in Myanmar) who are
actively producing drugs and smuggling them into our country,'' he told a
news conference.

San Ton Du checkpoint was opened last September as an informal trade
crossing for local merchants but has been used increasingly by guerrillas of
the United Wa State Army (UWSA) to transport heroin and amphetamines into
Thailand, police say.

International drugs enforcement agencies accuse the UWSA of being
responsible for most of the illicit drugs produced in the Golden Triangle
region, at the intersection of Thailand, Myanmar and Laos.

Thailand has deployed more than 800 troops along the border with Myanmar in
recent weeks to try to stem the flow of narcotics, but huge amounts of
amphetamines and heroin are still coming across the border, Thai police say.

Thai officials estimate the UWSA now produces some 300 million amphetamine
tablets a year, mainly for the Thai market.

U.S. authorities said 130,300 hectares (321,700 acres) of Myanmar were under
opium poppy cultivation last year, capable of yielding up to 1,750 tonnes of
opium gum. It takes about 10 tonnes of opium gum to make one tonne of
heroin.

Kachadpai said some 70 million baht worth of fuel and construction materials
had been exported from Thailand to Mong Yon since the checkpoint was opened.

But the UWSA had used much of the material to develop the area into a drugs
town, he said.

``We have nothing against developing the town but no one wants to make it
into a stronghold for drug traffickers,'' he said.


Thai officials say the UWSA have dominated drugs production in the border
areas since the notorious drugs warlord Khun Sa surrendered to Myanmar
government troops four years ago.

Thailand has also accused Myanmar soldiers of being involved in the drugs
trade, a charge denied by Yangon.