DRUG PRODUCTION RISING IN AREAS BORDERING BURMA

Drug armies operating on the Burmese side of the border have recently
boosted methamphetamine production, a senior narcotics officer said
yesterday.

Units of the United Wa State Army and the Kokang Chinese have stepped
up production of the illegal drug in the area adjacent to Mae Hong
Son, said the director of the Narcotic Control Board's Chiang Mai
branch, Pithaya Jinawat. He also singled out two villages in Mae Hong
Son as transit points for the drugs trade. The area in Burma was once
a stronghold of opium warlord Khun Sa, who surrendered in early 1996
to the Burmese government in return for a generous amnesty.

Pithaya said Ban Rak Thai and Ban Rung Arun, two villages in Mae Hong
Son, were transit points for methamphetamines from clandestine labs
belonging to the two armies.

He said cooperation between Thailand and Burma to combat the narcotics
trade had improved in the past two years but areas under the control
of pro-Rangoon ethnic armies remained problematic.