Pubdate: Tue, 20 Jun 2000 Source: International Herald-Tribune (France) Copyright: International Herald Tribune 2000 Contact: 181, Avenue Charles de Gaulle, 92521 Neuilly Cedex, France Fax: (33) 1 41 43 93 38 Website: http://www.iht.com/ Page: 9 Author: John Pomfret, Washington Post Service CHINA JOINS U.S. TO FIGHT CRIMES RELATED TO DRUGS BEIJING - After years of difficult negotiations, the United States and China signed their first agreement Monday between law enforcement agencies, pledging to cooperate and share intelligence in fighting drug-related crime. The agreement is important because China is suffering an enormous boom in heroin and methamphetamine use. China is also increasingly being used as a smuggling route for heroin from Burma into the United States. The White House anti-drug policy chief, Barry McCaffrey, said in an interview here that the accord was the first step toward U.S. training of Chinese narc cotics officers, the provision to China of U.S. anti-narcotics equipment and an agreement on extraditing or at least deporting drug suspects wanted by each country. "Down the line we will certainly want to provide them with the tools to collect evidence and collect intelligence particularly in the Burmese drug theater," General McCaffrey said, adding that such a step would bring U.S. and Chinese police agencies closer than ever before. The accord, the Mutual Legal Assistance Agreement, was signed on the second day of General McCaffrey's three-day trip to China, the first by an American director of drug policy. After visiting the southwestern province of Yunnan on Tuesday, the center of China's drug trafficking, he plans to travel to Hong Kong, Vietnam and Thailand. His visit to China, planned for almost two years, indicates that despite twists and turns in Washington's relations with Beijing, cooperation in some sensitive areas out of the international spotlight has continued. The United States and China, for example, have since the late 1990s conducted a joint eavesdropping operation along Burma's border to monitor narcotics trafficking. When asked about the operation, General McCaffrey said, "I have no comment on electronic intelligence intercepts." But despite optimism Monday, a series of issues continues to bedevil closer police cooperation. They include a historic mistrust between Chinese and U.S. security services, rivalry between bureaucracies involved in fighting illegal drugs and what some American officials call a lackadaisical attitude on the part of some Chinese agencies about China's growing drug problem. A 1988 case in which a Chinese drug suspect was granted political asylum in the United States continues to bother the Chinese. And while the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration was allowed to send an agent to China last year, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation remains barred from China, perhaps, some officials say, for its role in alleging that Chinese diplomats were involved in discussing the funneling of donations into American political campaigns. U.S. diplomats, for their part, say intelligence provided to Chinese agents by the Drug Enforcement Administration is not handled sensitively. It is often taken over an open phone fine by officials with no direct connection to investigations. Drug use in China is skyrocketing. China officially acknowledges about 600,000 heroin addicts, but General McCaffrey said the unofficial number was around 12 million - a huge about-face for a country that wiped out opium use after 1949. Even more disturbing for China, he said, is that 90 percent of the addicts from Chinese detoxification camps return to heroin use after their three-month sentences are served. Underscoring the severity of China's problem, Beijing on Monday announced a monthlong amnesty for drug users if they registered with the police and vowed to enter drug treatment programs. Drug Chief Speaks Out on 'Evil' In a sign of Beijing's commitment to working with Washington, China's chief official charged with fighting drugs made a rare appearance at a news conference with General McCaffrey at the U.S. Embassy, 'Me Associated Press reported. "Over 100 years ago, we had the Opium War," said the official, Yang Fengrui of the Public Security Ministry. "China was very much victimized and we can never forget that pain. Drugs are a great problem. It is the source of all evil. It is the enemy of all humanity. " - --- MAP posted-by: Derek