Pubdate: Sat, 24 Aug 2002 Source: Quad-City Times (IA) Section: Opinion Copyright: 2002 Quad-City Times Contact: http://www.qctimes.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/857 Author: Arthur C. Donart WHY DOES ATROCITY GO UNNOTICED? Monday's editorial in the Bangkok Post was titled "Drugs and thugs along the boarder." Although the Burmese generals in Rangoon have closed the border between Thailand and Burma, there are scheduled talks aimed at reopening the border. The Post editorial makes several points that ought to also concern U.S. foreign policy makers. First, the government in Rangoon has forced the ethnic Shan people from their traditional homes on the Thai boarder and replaced them with Wa people. This is the biggest forced migration since the Vietnam War. The international community did not stand idle when such ethnic cleansing happened in Bosnia; yet this atrocity seems to go largely unnoticed. Why? The second point is that the newly arrived Wa leaders have set up their own rather autonomous state and armed force that is anything other than benign. "Wa leaders are known to run the world's largest drug cartels. They have taken over the former heroin networks of Khun Sa, and built strong trafficking ties with the Chinese triads," the Post reports. "They have built this huge drug trafficking network behind the armed protection of the Burmese dictators and with their personal approval." Shouldn't this be of great concern to our foreign policy makers? Where do terrorists get their money if not from the drug trade? Isn't the connection between drug money and illegal arms sufficiently well established that these happenings ought to be a red flag waving to signal our own security gurus? Perhaps the government in Iraq is not the only government that needs to be removed! Arthur C. Donart Bangkok, Thailand (permanent address, Thomson, Ill.) - --- MAP posted-by: Beth