Fwd: Re: Reuters-Canada ready to wo

[bina@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Subject: Fwd: Re: Reuters-Canada ready to work with Myanmar on drugs - paper 

Friends,

In response to the latest OKKAR proclamation, "Media in Thailand publish
fabricated news despite Myanmar?s cooperation ...blah, blah, blah" (Aug 7),
please consider the following.

Who should one believe about drugs?  A brutal and fearful group of
self-elected criminals in soldier costume, whose vast and shocking human
rights violations have been painfully recorded by thousands of eye-witness
testimonies, and whose motivation to lie about drugs is obvious?  Or the
evidence and opinion of the world press, the United Nations, and
spokespeople from all the free and open societies in the world today, most
of whom suffer from Myanmar's drug business?

No choice, you say?  Then please explain Canada's vote of confidence in the
SPDC.  Perhaps there are one or two members of the SPDC gang who have
misgivings about taking drug money, and Canada would like to cultivate
these.  But why do it in a way that is bound to damage the only hope for
democracy and humanity in Burma, the country's elected MP's?
Their must be a better way, gentlemen.

[Australia's recent attempt to play diplomatic "human rights" games with
the devil's toy soldiers would be beneath comment, except for the fact that
it makes any move toward an open society in Burma that much more difficult.
 What could Sidoti and his band of fools be thinking, besides getting a few
news headlines for a few days?  Or do they have some more sinister (read
economic) motive in conducting this farcical attempt to whitewash Rangoon's
bloody image?  Why do they ignore the real Head of State in Burma, whose
party was elected overwhelmingly by the Burmese people?  Is democracy a
little too slow for their tastes?  What a disgrace, and potential political
danger, for the Australian people, to let this policy go unchallenged.]

Forwarded item follows:  

At 11:23 PM 8/1/99 +0900, TIN KYI wrote:

>01:06 a.m. Aug 01, 1999 Eastern
>BANGKOK, Aug 1 (Reuters) - Canada is willing to break its long-standing
>policy of no-contact with Myanmar in an effort to combat the drugs trade,
>the Thai Sunday Nation newspaper said.

Too bad.  One expects better from a sensible country like Canada.  

This is another futile attempt and grand waste of time, money and goodwill 
that would be much better spent for the Canadian people by helping to evict 
the criminal military government who is managing this drug trade.

At best, the SPDC is grossly and feebly incompetent.  At worst (and there
is much evidence for this) the SPDC directly supports and personally
benefits from the drug trade.  So why give these people more time and
money?  Would not a democratic Burmese government (like the one elected by
the people in 1990) stand a better chance of eliminating Canada's (and the
world's) drug problem? 

The SPDC dictatorship brags (1) that Burma destroyed during the past 10
years:	

90,000 acres of poppy fields 				
30 tons of raw opium 				
4 tons of heroin				
13 million methamphetamine tablets 		

The fact is that today Burma cultivates, produces, or exports: 

321,700 acres of poppy fields, annually (2)
2,800 tons of raw opium, annually (3)
280 tons of heroin, annually (4)
300 million methamphetamine tablets, annually (5)

I suggest that Canada do the right thing, and not participate in the SPDC's 
evil and hopeless charade of "drug fighting", which is just another painful 
mockery for the people who are sincerely trying to save this country by 
implementing the will of the Burmese people. 

Yours truly,

Indiana

*******************
References:

(1) ?Burma destroyed 4,000 kg of heroin, 30,000 kg of raw opium, 13 million
methamphetamine tablets and 90,000 acres of poppy fields during its 10-year
operation which ended in 1997, the statement [of the Burmese embassy]
said.?  [Bangkok Post, 27 July 99]
			
(2) ?U.S. officials say 130,300 hectares (321,700 acres) of Myanmar were 
under opium poppy cultivation last year.?  [Reuters, 1 August 99]

(3) ?Thailand's ONCB said the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency had estimated
Myanmar would produce 2,500 to 2,800 tons of opium this year.?  [Reuters,
22 July 99]

(4) ?24 tons of opium [can produce about] 2.4 tons of pure heroin? But 
Myanmar has made very modest progress in reducing its opium output. --
Pino Arlacchi, Director of the United Nations International Drug Control 
Program.?  [New York Times, 11 July 99]

 (5) ?The Thai Narcotics Control Board estimates there are at least 57 
amphetamine and heroin factories in the Golden Triangle under the control
of the [SPDC cease-fire partner] UWSA and guerrillas of [Khun Sa?s] Mong
Tai Army.  It estimates UWSA areas now produce 300 million amphetamine
tablets a year.?  [Reuters, 27 July 99]