6 nations reaffirm commitment to cooperate in eliminating drug

Six signatory nations to a pact on drug control cooperation -- Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam reaffirmed in a declaration on Thursday their commitment to overcome and eliminate drug problems in the East Asian region. The Nay Pyi Taw Declaration on drug control cooperation among the six nations was issued at the end of a one-day meeting held in the Myanmar capital, attended by ministers and representatives from the six countries as well as representatives from the United Nations Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC). The declaration expressed satisfaction over the efforts and progress made by the signatories through fruitful cooperation within various existing bilateral, sub-regional, regional and international drug control cooperation mechanisms. The declaration appreciated the joint accomplishments of the signatories to the 1993 Memorandum of Understanding on Drug Control and of the UNODC in the areas of drug demand reduction, HIV prevention, alternative development, law enforcement, in particular cross border cooperation, criminal justice and international collaboration. The declaration took note of the increasing manufacture and consumption of amphetamine-type stimulants along with rising opium cultivation which have undermined regional development at a significant cost to governments and citizens. It also acknowledged that the combination of drug trafficking and other forms of transnational organized crime has posed a particular challenge to the stability and rule of law in border areas. The MoU on drug control was first signed by four nations namely Myanmar, China, Laos and Thailand in 1993 through the coordination of the UNODC and the MoU was extended to Cambodia and Vietnam in 1995. Liu Yuejin, Chinese delegation leader and permanent deputy secretary general of China's National Narcotics Control Commission, vowed at the meeting to continue cooperation with regional countries in drug elimination. Lieutenant-General Ko Ko, who is chairman of Myanmar's Central Committee for Drug Abuse Control and minister of home affairs, warned that opium cultivation rebounded again in 2007 due to its basic changing trend. Myanmar has declared that it will continue to fight drug in 2013 under a revised 15-year drug eradication plan (1999-2014) which has been extended for another five years until 2019 to maintain the momentum of war against drug. Myanmar has been implementing the 15-year original plan since 1999 in three five-year phases to fight against drug and the plan has now reached the fourth year of the final five-year phase before it was extended. Meanwhile, Myanmar and the United States have also signed a letter of agreement on resuming joint opium yield survey this year after such cooperation was halted for nine years since 2004. The letter of agreement, signed in February, signified Myanmar' s continued efforts in strengthening cooperation with the international community in drug elimination. Myanmar and the U.S. had conducted joint opium yield survey for 10 times before 2004. In recent years, drug trafficking, once viewed largely as a social and criminal problem, has transformed into a major threat to the health and security of people and regions. The cooperation of law enforcement agencies of the four countries -- Myanmar, China, Laos and Thailand has resulted in the arrest of drug trafficker and fugitive Sa Naw Kham in Laos in April 2012 who committed ambush attacks in the Mekong River, killing 12 personnel undertaking law enforcement duties and five civilians in 2011. Naw Kham and three of his accomplices were executed by lethal injection in the city of Kunming in southwest China's Yunnan Province in accordance with law on March 1, 2013.