Feature: More Cooperation, Fewer Drugs: New Trends Along Thai-Lao Border

"This place will be a new gateway to Indochina," says a banner placed at the sixth floor of a famous pagoda overlooking the Mekong River between Thailand and Laos in the Mukdahan checkpoint, 642 kilometers northeast of Bangkok.

This is what impressed Xinhua reporters most during a recent tour organized by the Thai Army to Thailand's northeastern border with Laos. Down on the ground, the prosperous border town of Mukdakhan is planned by the Thai and Lao governments to become a center point of a new trade route linking Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.

At the same time, these border areas are facing challenges too, that is, the growing traffic of illicit drugs through this part of Thai-Lao border.

At an army headquarter in Khon Kaen, some 100 kilometers inland from Mukdahan, Hurn Wannaprasert, who leads a special task force for drug eradication in the northeast border areas, told Xinhua that villagers in the provinces along Thai-Lao border have been mobilized to fight the drugs and the countries are strengthening cooperation to curb drug traffic.

Close to the famous so-called Golden Triangle, the wildness of various mountains and rivers along the border have helped facilitate the transnational illicit drug flow, said the commander of the Surasak Mentri Force (SMF).

The Golden Triangle, which refers to the area where Myanmar, Thailand and Laos join together, has long been one of the world's main opium-growing regions for decades and recently has became a center for producing methamphetamine, a new breed of drugs.

As security measures tightened along the Thai-Myanmar border and the two countries have determined to eliminate drugs in their common frontier by next year, drug lords are changing their smuggling routes to another side of the Golden Triangle, the Thai-Lao border areas, said Hurn.

Local media reported that the drug factories, which used to be based in the Myanmar territories close to northern Thailand, were moving into bordering areas in Bor Kaew province of Laos. Hurn did not confirm the news, but admitted that the amount of methamphetamine pills smuggled from Laos to Thailand rose to one million a month.

In February, Hurn's soldiers seized 7.1 kilograms of heroin in the northern province of Nong Khai, which is opposite to the Lao capital of Vientiane across the river. "There is no such kind of drug production in the Lao side of border before", Hurn added.

SMF is our friend

When Xinhua reporters followed Chief of Thai Army Secretariat M.G. Sirapong Boonpat and other Army officers into Laomabang, a small village in the border areas of Nong Khai, a group of children were playing by the Mekong River, without feeling surprised at the sight of military men. Actually, they are too familiar with them.

"SMF is our friend", village headman Navachala said. He added that before the special task force started to cover the village, about 70 percent of villagers had been involved in drug trade between 1996 and 2000.

"At that time, the village turns into a hell, " he recalled.

SongMai, a 40-year-old housewife, said that five years ago her husband began smuggling drugs from Lao areas in the opposite side of the river and she acted as a guard for him. When there were any policeman around, she would hang up a piece of white cloth as an alert to her husband.

As natives like her husband knowing local terrain very well, they had never been arrested by the police, she said.

"But our life was not improved from the drug trade, " SongMai said. "In fact it is a nightmare".

She said that her husband, forced to show efficacy of the drug pills for his customers, eventually became an acidhead.

However, after the SMF came to the village last August, all the things began to change, Navachala said. The officers helped villagers keep away from drugs and established an anti-drug system.

As Xinhua reporters noticed, the new rules of the village posted on a wall states that local government will not assist families involved in drug trade, and any offenders will be fined for 5000 baht (110 U.S. dollars).

Besides Laomabang, another 50 villages along the border have also got rid of drugs, local official told reporters.

New bridge to wealth

Soon after Thaksin became the prime minister of Thailand, he promised in March to wage a war against drugs. As a result, Thailand has enhanced cooperation with neighbors -- China, Myanmar and Laos.

Senior officials from the four countries have met in Rangoon and Beijing on the issue, and their ministers will meet in Kunming later this year to pave the way for the four-country drug summit in Beijing close to year-end.

During Thaksin's July visit to Laos, both sides agreed to join their anti-drug efforts. The Lao government said it is ready for an all-around bilateral cooperation to fight drugs and is interested in Thailand's success in reducing the opium plantation through crop-substitution projects initiated by the King of Thailand.

From August 17 to 19, Lao Prime Minister Boonyang Vorachit is scheduled to officially visit Thailand, and the Thai and Lao governments would signed three agreements and a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on cooperation in drug prevention and suppression.

The two premiers all have pointed out clearly that the eradication of drugs will help create a sound environment for expanding economic ties.

As part of the bilateral economic plan, the construction of the second Friendship Bridge spanning Savannakhet of Laos and Mukdahan of Thailand will start next year and is expected to be completed in 2005. The cost will be borne equally by Thailand and Laos while the construction financed by a loan from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation.

"By that time, with the drug problems solved, the bridge will act as the East-west Corridor which links a major regional trade route across the Indochina, and will provide a vital economic artery for the whole region," said a local official when leading reporters during a visit to the local border market of Mukdahan..

Last year, Thai exports through the Mukdahan checkpoint have rocketed to 5.1 billion baht (110 million dollars) from 1.6 billion baht (35.5 million dollars) in 1994, and imports have grown to 1.3 billion baht (28.8 million dollars) as well.

In the border market crowded with traders and tourists speaking Thai, Lao or Vietnamese, all the people seem excited about new trade prospects of the bridge project. Two Lao young sisters who are choosing cloth at one stand told Xinhua that now it is very convenient for people from different countries in the region to pay a visit or do business here.

"Once the bridge is built, we will be able to visit Mukdahan more frequently and the future for all the people here will be brighter," they said.






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