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MYANMAR MILITIA SAYS U.S.  CHARGES HURT ANTI-OPIUM DRIVE

PANG HSANG, Myanmar - U.S.  charges that eight militia leaders in Myanmar are drug lords are false and undermine efforts to stop the growing of opium in the notorious Golden Triangle, an ethnic militia leader said on Tuesday.

The eight men from the United Wa State Army ( UWSA ), one of the world's biggest drug cartels according to Washington, were indicted in a New York court on Jan.  24 on charges of trafficking heroin and methamphetamine, or speed.

"This is based on wrong information and details fabricated by political opportunists in Thailand," UWSA vice chairman Shiao Min Liang told reporters at the group's headquarters in northeastern Myanmar.

Liang was not among the eight indicted by the U.S.  Justice Department after a joint Thai-U.S.  investigation dubbed "Operation Warlord".

Thailand and the West have long accused the Wa army of producing most of the drugs from the notorious Golden Triangle where Myanmar, Thailand and Laos meet.

The 16,000-strong UWSA ended its armed struggle for an ethnic Wa state in 1989 when it signed a peace deal with Myanmar's military junta.  The group controls its territory in the Shan hills with almost complete autonomy.

Despite declining output in recent years, Myanmar is the world's number two producer of opium after Afghanistan.  About one third of the crop is grown in Wa-controlled areas.

Much of it is refined into heroin and transported through Thailand or China onto the world market, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime ( UNODC ) says.

Powerful Syndicate

In the indictment, the U.S.  Justice Department said the UWSA was "a powerful criminal syndicate and worldwide narcotics trafficking organization" that produced more than 180 tonnes of opium last year.

It accuses the group of taxing and collecting opium, manufacturing and distributing heroin and methamphetamine to the United States and other markets, and laundering the drug money through legitimate businesses.

The indictment alleges the Wa army provides security for drug factories in its territory and guards caravans smuggle drugs to brokers in Thailand, Laos and China.

The eight indicted leaders, led by Wei Hsueh Kang, who has a $2 million bounty on his head, are accused of importing heroin worth $1 billion worth into the United States since 1985.

Liang did not comment on the eight accused, but insisted the UWSA was working hard to stamp out opium cultivation in Wa-controlled areas by June.

"It is merely an act to ruin the total eradication project being implemented by Wa leaders and the people," he said.

In its 2004 opium survey, UNODC estimated Myanmar's opium poppy crop at 44,200 hectares, down 29 percent from 2003.  It dropped 18 percent to 16,750 hectares in Wa-controlled areas.

"This is basically the last harvest," said Nikolas Win Myint, a UNODC programme officer in Yangon who saw little impact from the U.S.  indictments.

A more pressing issue is how Wa farmers forced to stop growing opium replace a crop that provides two-thirds of their income.  Cash crops earn far less and more effort is needed to ensure farmers don't feel compelled to return to poppy crops.

"We're nowhere close to replacing that income," he said.