WA ASK FOR HELP IN FIGHT AGAINST DRUGS

The leader of the United Wa State Army (UWSA), an organisation accused of
being the world's largest drug army, yesterday reached out to Thailand,
calling for greater cooperation and an end to its demonisation.

UWSA chairman Bao Yu-xiang, appearing publicly for the first time with a
senior official from the Thai Army after years of disputes, requested
greater help in eradicating opium cultivation.

Boa spoke as he and Thailand's Third Army Region commander Lt-General
Picharnmate Muangmanee presided over the opening of a Thai-funded hospital.
The project is part of a larger effort between the two countries to counter
the cultivation of narcotics.

It is modelled on a crop substitution project in Chiang Rai's Doi Tung
area, once one of Thailand's prime opium-growing areas.

The US State Department has accused the UWSA of being the world's largest
armed drug-trafficking group and one of the Wa commanders - Wei Hsueh-kang
- - has been indicted for trafficking heroin in both the US and Thailand.

Thai troops along the northern border are often involved in shoot-outs with
drug caravans moving UWSA property.

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has declared the Wa a national menace.

Speaking to reporters, Bao dismissed allegations that his 20,000-strong
army was involved in flooding Thailand with millions of methamphetamine
tablets.

He said the chemicals required to manufacture methamphetamines were
produced abroad and that his people did not have the expertise to control
such a trade. He also invited international monitoring of the
UWSA-controlled area.

He said some villagers living in the area were still cultivating opium, but
reiterated his commitment to eradicate planting by 2005.

Analysts and observers said opium was not the problem, but the
methamphetamines coming out of the Burmese sector of the Golden Triangle -
a region controlled mostly by ethnic groups that have signed cease-fire
agreements with the Rangoon junta.