MYANMAR HOLDS MASSIVE DRUG BURN TO MARK WORLD ANTI-TRAFFICKING DAY

YANGON -- Myanmar's military rulers on Saturday destroyed almost $250
million worth of illegal drugs to mark the International Day Against Drug
Abuse and Illicit Trafficking. More than 710 kilograms of opium and 353
kilograms of heroin were burned along with 2.6 million metamphetamine pills
and other drugs while officials from Myanmar's military regime and
international diplomats looked on.

The drugs, with a total value of about $247 million, were destroyed in a
make-shift incinerator set up at Yangon's Drugs Elimination Museum.

General Khin Yii, who jointly heads Myanmar's Central Committee for Drug
Abuse Control, said it was the 18th time the regime had incinerated tons of
illegal narcotics.

"Since 1990 when these drug destroying events started to take place $14.45
billion worth of drugs have already been destroyed," Khin Yii told
reporters, adding that opium production had also declined in that time.

But Khin Yii cautioned that metamphetamines were replacing opium as the
main choice of traffickers.

"Although poppy cultivation has been reduced ... the danger of stimulant
tablets in becoming a threat," he said, without elaborating on the extent
of metamphetamine production or trafficking.

According to the United Nations opium production has fallen 24 percent in
Myanmar since 2003.

However, the United States warned in March that while Myanmar had cut poppy
cultivation it remained the world's second ranked supplier of the drug from
which derivatives such as heroin are made.

Thailand also said earlier this year that it was considering building a
high-security fence along its border with Myanmar in a bid to stop
smugglers trafficking illegal drugs into the kingdom.