INTERVIEW-MYANMAR MUST SPEED UP DRUGS ACTION
- -U.N.

Military ruled Myanmar is not doing enough to combat narcotics production
and trafficking and should speed up its opium eradication programme, a
senior U.N. narcotics official said on Tuesday.

Myanmar, the world's biggest single source of heroin, recently announced a
target date of 2014 for total eradication of opium production within it
borders.

Christian Kornevall, East Asia and Pacific representative of the U.N.
International Drug Control Programme (UNDCP), told Reuters there had been
evidence of increased narcotics seizures and drugs enforcement in Myanmar,
but added:

"They are not doing enough, of course not, and the timetable which they
have set out, it's a pity that it doesn't follow the U.N. ... They have put
out their own line."

He said the United Nations wanted a "substantial reduction" in production
by 2008 and for Myanmar to accelerate alternative development programmes in
opium-producing areas.

Asked whether Yangon was making enough use of its substantial military
resources to suppress opium and heroin production and bring traffickers to
justice, he replied:

"We would, of course, like to see more resources in Myanmar devoted to this
and that they have the possibility to curb more effectively the whole
production and manufacturing of drugs."

Kornevall said latest U.S. estimates showed Myanmar's opium output fell
below 2,000 tonnes in 1998, a "significant" reduction. U.S. estimates for
1997 were 2,365 tonnes.

However, Kornevall said that while Myanmar attributed the fall to its
alternative development programmes and there had been some progress in
reducing production in some areas, both the United Nations and the United
States said poor growing weather was largely responsible.

While there were indications of some decrease in heroin production,
amphetamine output had "skyrocketed", he said.

Producers were diversifying production to include amphetamines. "This we
are seeing as very, very severe and we are very, very worried about this,"
he said.

Kornevall said the UNDCP was not involved in police work and so had no
evidence to back claims by anti-Yangon groups of involvement in the drugs
trade of high-level Myanmar officials.

But the UNDCP would like Myanmar to be "more forthcoming" about its
relations with ethnic drug-producing groups: "We would like them to find
ways of curbing this production," he said.

While praising the work at an operating level of some Myanmar enforcement
officials working in cooperation with UNDCP programmes, he said political
progress was necessary in Myanmar to allow real progress on drug eradication.

"A political solution of course is very much needed...to enhance better
cooperation between Myanmar and other governments. The overall political
situation in the country makes it difficult," he said.

He said this had been shown by the boycott by the United States and
European nations of a narcotics conference organised by Interpol which
started in Yangon on Tuesday. Western states have been sharply critical of
Myanmar's failure to democratise and of its human rights and drug
eradication efforts.

Kornevall told a seminar on Tuesday the UNDCP was taking part in the
conference despite the boycott because it was important to promote greater
cooperation in drug suppression.

"It's a very complex situation and it might be easier to have an opinion
from very far away than actually be up in those areas...(but) I think it
would be very detrimental for the drugs case if countries individually were
to take a very negative attitude towards drug cooperation."