HEROIN-GROWING NATIONS BEGIN BATTLE AGAINST DRUGS TRADE

RANGOON -- Burma and Afghanistan, the world's leading producers of heroin,
sent tens of millions of pounds worth of drugs up in smoke yesterday as
they intensified appeals for international respectability and aid.

Despite widespread suspicions that drugs provide a rich source of income to
government officials and allied warlords in both countries, their leaders
claim to have changed their ways.

At a ceremony in Kabul to mark International Day Against Drug Abuse, the
Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, pledged to restore the good name of his
country, the source of 80-90 per cent of Europe's heroin, which is refined
from opium.

Mr Karzai pledged to stop the cultivation of opium poppies and marijuana,
and to grow fruit instead.

At a similar ceremony in Rangoon, Burma's military regime destroyed drugs
with an estimated street value of UKP650 million in a further effort to
enhance its dire reputation. The move follows the release from house arrest
of the opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.

Members of the ruling military council flicked the switch on an incinerator
the size of a house as workers passed bags containing 240kg of heroin,
3,027kg of opium, 434kg of marijuana and 35 million amphetamine tablets
into the flames.

About 200 foreign diplomats, government ministers and officials attended
the event in a well orchestrated publicity stunt, with foreign journalists
granted visas for the first time in weeks. Both countries have to work out
how to persuade opium-growing farmers, who are often in regions not under
full government control, to accept vast drops in income by replacing poppy
with legal crops, and they have to stamp out corruption, develop law
enforcement and co-operate with their neighbours.

They are under strong pressure, particularly from America, the global
leader in the war on drugs, to improve their performance.

Some diplomats and United Nations officials in the south-east Asian state
have patted the pariah regime on the back for its endeavour against the
illicit industry, which supplies the highly addictive drug to North America
and Asia, funding crime syndicates across both regions.

Jean-Luc Lemahieu, representative of the UN's drug control programme, said:
"It's obviously not perfect but there is political will to change and we
can make progress with this country. The results speak for themselves."

A diplomat in Rangoon said: "They are getting serious about arresting drug
traffickers. They are acting out of self-interest more than out of
international pressure because they see the scale of the drug problem as a
threat to stability."

But enormous problems remain. Estimates of the amount of drug money now
invested in the real economy run from five to 20 per cent.

Critics claim that the narcotics trade bankrolls the military government,
and say peace deals signed with ethnic insurgent groups were reached only
after the junta promised to turn a blind eye to drug production in those
groups mountainous border strongholds.

Madeleine Albright, the former US secretary of state, called Burma, which
has been officially renamed Myanmar, a "narco-state".