Pubdate: Wed, 15 Dec 1999 Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA) Copyright: 1999 San Francisco Chronicle Page: A16 Contact: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/ Forum: http://www.sfgate.com/conferences/ Author: Lewis Dolinsky NOTES FROM HERE AND THERE QUANDARY ON BURMA AND DRUGS Members of Burma's junta, including one of its big three, were pleasant to South Bay Republican Tom Campbell when he met them recently in Rangoon. They want an end to the U.S. ban on new investment in Burma; he wants opium poppies eradicated, or at least a serious attempt. If drugs really can be stopped at the source, he came to the right place. As much as 50 percent of the world's heroin originates in Burma, much of it in areas where the junta has negotiated "uneasy truces'' (Campbell's phrase) with tribal armies. Campbell and two other congressmen - Democrat Donald Payne of New Jersey and Republican John Cooksey of Louisiana - were escorted to northern Burma by Colonel Kyaw Thein, who had negotiated many of the cease-fires (which do not include the Karen ethnic group). When Campbell's party reached territory held by the NDAA (National Democratic Alliance Army), the colonel stopped answering questions and the NDAA started doing the talking. "I went in with the government,'' Campbell said in a telephone interview, "but they (the tribesmen) were the law.'' Legitimate enterprise in these areas is geared not to Rangoon but to China. In Mongla, Campbell saw a casino and tourist hotel, a Catholic church and Buddhist pagoda. A sugar factory had shut down; China has plenty. Campbell doesn't want to be a "one-day wonder'' (instant expert), and he is vague on some details. But he notes that farmers could grow buckwheat or rice instead of poppies, but then what? There are no roads to get a crop to Rangoon. If the Chinese don't want it, there's no buyer. But there is always a market for opiate. A middleman comes to the door and pays up front, though not generously. Poppy cultivation has dropped in Burma. Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi ("phenomenal, great presence, I have nothing but admiration for her'') attributes this decrease to drought. She told Campbell that the junta, if it had the will, could stamp out poppy production as it has stamped out human rights. She says that nothing but humanitarian aid should come into Burma, that when the government falls, the tribes will be part of the political process and won't need bullets, or drug money to buy them. The West will want to invest in a democracy. Campbell has no reason to think that the junta will fall. He acknowledges that investment needed to provide roads to get rice to market will shore up a brutal regime that voided elections won by Suu Kyi's party in 1988. He also knows that elements within the government and military profit from drugs; Burma runs on drugs. But he was told by neighboring Thailand's deputy foreign minister, Sukhumbhand Paribatra, "We don't approve of the government of Burma, but we do work with them on drug eradication and you should be open to doing the same.'' Campbell is undecided. A meeting with the State Department on Monday may help make up his mind. Since returning December 2 from his Asian tour - a day in Thailand, three in Vietnam, four in Burma - Campbell has been running hard for the GOP Senate nomination to oppose Democratic incumbent Dianne Feinstein. Burma policy is not expected to play a big part in that election. Drug policy might. NEW ZEALAND'S SURPRISE Reports from New Zealand indicated that Helen Clark's Labor Party, in coalition with the liberal Alliance, had won a parliamentary majority. Not so. A recount gave the Greens a seat by 246 votes. Under the electoral system introduced in New Zealand in 1996, that gave the Greens six seats instead of none. The Greens have since picked up another seat. Don't bother trying to figure this out. One new Green member of Parliament is said to have taken part in every civil disturbance in New Zealand since the early '80s; another is a Rastafarian whose slogan was "Put the Dread in the House.'' The Financial Times describes him as an ecoterrorist. The Greens aren't formally part of Clark's (now minority) coalition, but the new government may need them for some crucial votes. [snip - the rest of the column's parts were not related to drug policy] - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake