પવન માં
6
14.
•
From this confused and depressing picture it can only be concluded that the prospects for any appreciable reduction of Burma's illicit export of opium and its derivatives in the near future are very poor indeed. There appears to be little possibi- lity of any early solution to the problems of insurgency plaguing the country, and thus real progress towards suppressing opium growing and trafficking in Burma in the short term at least can hardly be expected. In effect northeast Burma can be deemed to be an opium producing, manufacturing and trafficking sanctury pouring its exports into the almost bottomless well of Thailand, The Burmese Government is fully aware of the narcotics situation in its country and has expressed concern about it, but without outside help the Government is practically powerless to do anything to curb it and bring it under control.
15.
Burma ratified the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs and took part in the meeting of the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs in March 1972 to amend that Convention to increase its effectiveness. However, Burma abstained on the vote on the final amendments and its signature is absent from the Protocol amending the Single Convention. The President of the International Narcotics Control Board visited Burma with a mission in August 1972 and a visit from the Head of the United Nations Fund for Drug Abuse Control has taken place recently. It is to be hoped that these preliminary discussions will lead to Burma accepting United Nations assistance in the anti-narcotics field, but again it must be admitted that the prospects do not appear to be encouraging in this direction all things considered.
The Situation in Thailand
16.
The position in Thailand is not dissimilar to that prevailing in Burma on the one hand in as much as the opiumG growing areas are mountainous, wild, remote and largely inacces- sible with the ability of the Government to enforce its writ in these regions tenuous at the best. On the other hand the position differs in two important respects; firstly, as already pointed out, Thailand is the recipient of the major portion of the illicit export of opium and its derivatives from Burma which aggravates its own problems, and secondly the Americans have considerable political leverage in the country (unlike Burma) and have succeeded in obtaining the active cooperation of the Thai Government in measures dosigned to reduce opium growing progressively and to interdiot illicit trafficking.
17.
Although opium cultivation in Thailand has been illegal since the 1st January, 1959, nevertheless it is estimated that up to 200 tons per year is grown illicitly in the northern border areas of the country. As in Burma, the Government realises the important part opium plays in the economic life of the hill tribes who grow it and that if its production is to be systematically reduced, then acceptable substitute crops must be developed to replace it and effective control gained over the border regions.
SECRET 高度機密