US ARMY TO TRAIN THAIS IN WAR ON DRUGS

BANGKOK - With experience gained from efforts against the cocaine
trade in Colombia, US Army units will next month begin training Thai
troops trying to stem a narcotics tide coming from Myanmar.

A joint command headquarters is to be set up in the northern city of
Chiang Mai next month, the Bangkok Post quoted a senior Thai military
officer as saying.

Northern Thailand is on the frontline of a war against heroin,
methamphetamines and other drugs flowing in from neighbouring Myanmar.

Lt-General Watthanachai Chaimuenwong said the problem is expected to
worsen next year when the United Wa State Army sends even more drugs
across the border.

This group is a narcotics trafficking outfit operating inside
Myanmar, and is expected to increase methamphetamine output to 600
million pills from the 400 million this year.

Only 25 million pills were seized in Thailand this year, he said.

The United Wa State Army has been described as perhaps the largest
narcotics trafficking group in the world.

No details of the US-Thai military cooperation were given and
military officials were not available for comment during the New Year
weekend.--AP