MYANMAR NEEDS MORE MONEY TO ACCELERATE ANTI-DRUG PLAN

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The military government of Myanmar (Burma) said
on Tuesday it needed international assistance or it could not eliminate its
opium poppy crop, the second largest in the world, within 10 years as the
United Nations wants.

Addressing a U.N. summit on drugs, Col. Tin Hlaing, the home affairs
minister, said his government since September had destroyed more than 8,555
pounds of heroin and over 54,670 pounds of opium and 11 million tablets of
stimulants.

In addition he said seized drugs have been burned 12 times in the capital
Yangon, formerly Rangoon, and 19 times in border areas in which 766
soldiers lost their lives and 2,292 were injured.

``We are determined to achieve the goal of total elimination of poppy
growing and opium production in Myanmar within 15 years and with available
resources of our own,'' he said.

``Nevertheless should there be assistance from the international community,
this goal will be achieved sooner rather than later,'' he added.

Pino Arlacchi, the head of the U.N. drug control program in Vienna, is
promoting a plan that would induce farmers in nine drug-producing countries
to switch to legal crops.

Myanmar, whose military government has been criticized around the world for
severe human rights violations and for suppressing the results of
elections, is expected to find few donors for any drug control program the
army runs.

But Arlacchi said there were no plans to give Myanmar, or the Taliban in
Afghanistan, the world's largest supplier of heroin, large amounts of money
and that any program could be supervised through satellite reconnaissance
and other means.

His spokesman Sandro Tucci said on Tuesday, ``These are the people we must
deal with -- not Sweden. The alternative would be to do nothing.''

The United States has supported the alternative development plan in various
countries of the world but has devoted more funds to law enforcement.

The State Department last week set $2 million rewards for four men wanted
in drug charges in New York, three of them from Myanmar. One of the
accused, Khun Sa, was captured by Myanmar's military in 1996 and is
believed to be living in an army safe house in Yangon, along with key aide
Chang Ping-Yun.