U.S. GRANTS USD 4.5 MILLION ASSISTANCE TO THAILAND

For Anti-Narcotics, Law Enforcement, Regional Activities

U.S. Embassy Information Resource Center - U.S. Ambassador Darryl N.
Johnson and Department of Technical and Economic Cooperation Director
General Ambassador Piamsak Milintachinda has signed an agreement through
which the U.S. will provide more than USD 4.5 million of assistance to nine
narcotics and legal projects in Thailand.

The projects cover the areas of criminal justice, law enforcement,
trafficking in persons, intellectual property rights, drug crop control,
demand reduction and regional cooperation.

Since 1974, the U.S. government has provided a total of over 85 million
dollars to Thailand under the bilateral assistance program for
anti-narcotics and law enforcement activities. Thai-U.S. bilateral
cooperation in narcotics control is in the four program areas of opium crop
control, demand reduction, law enforcement, and regional anti-narcotics
activities.

Assistance under the Crop Control Project began in 1978 to help the then
newly organized Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB) establish a
crop control division. This was to provide hill tribe farmers with viable
alternative crops. After economic alternatives were in place in most areas,
the Royal Thai Government (RTG) in 1984 initiated the opium eradication
campaign. Thailand has now emerged as a leader in the drug control area and
has begun to provide alternative development assistance and information
sharing and training programs of its own for officials in neighboring and
other countries.

Assistance under the Demand Reduction Project provides modest funding
support for RTG and NGO anti-drug community outreach through a nationwide
network. Funding also supports epidemiological and drug prevention studies
in selected hill tribe villages and provides small grants to public and
private institutions throughout the country in order to maximize impact at
the community level. Finally, it provides assistance in establishing a
methamphetamine outpatient treatment program based using the Matrix model,
as well as a support for a Narcotics Control Technology Center.

The Law Enforcement project's main thrust is institution building. Through
training and capacity building programs in investigation and intelligence,
support for development in the criminal justice system and provision of
limited equipment such as computers, radios, GPS, vehicles, and body armor,
the project aims to find and bring to justice significant traffickers.

The Regional Project supports the RTG leadership role in working with
regional states on narcotics control issues by funding regional meetings,
workshops, and training.

The International Law Enforcement Academy (ILEA) in Bangkok is a joint
Thai-US endeavor, which supports international cooperation and developing
skills among Asian law enforcement professionals to confront the problem of
transnational organized crime. Since this bilateral agreement was signed
September 30, 1998, over 3,000 law enforcement professionals from around
the region have been trained at ILEA. A new training facility was completed
last May.

The project against Trafficking in Persons provides training and limited
commodity support to a variety of Royal Thai Government agencies or
non-governmental organizations that have responsibility to investigate and
prosecute persons involved in trafficking of persons, especially women and
children. Resources may support training, production of instructional
manuals, establishment of specialized facilities such as interview rooms or
shelters.

Measures against Intellectual Property Rights protection provide training
and technical assistance to Thai police and customs officials to combat
intellectual property piracy. Measures against money laundering are
designed to provide technical support to AMLO, the Royal Thai Police and
the Department of Special Investigations to prevent money laundering and
meet the requirements of the Financial Action Task Force.

The project on Criminal Justice Sector Development is designed to enhance
integrity in all sectors of the Thai criminal justice system.