Myanmar burns 1,906 kg narcotic drugs

Myanmar authorities on Sunday burnt 1,906 kilograms (kg) of narcotic drugs worth a street value of 328 million US dollars at an annual drug destruction ceremony.

The drugs including 759 kg heroin, 625 kg opium, as well as 3.02 million tablets of stimulants were seized last year.

It is the 19th time the country has set fire to drugs in Yangon. The drugs were burned to mark the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking.

First Secretary of the Myanmar State Peace and Development Council Lieutenant-General Thein Sein attended the drug destruction ceremony and the torch was lit by Myanmar Minister of Home Affairs Major-General Maung Oo and Chinese Ambassador to Myanmar Li Jinjun.

Myanmar recorded a total of 3,012 narcotic-drug cases in 2004, punishing 4,153 people in the connection. The authorities seized 973.5 kg heroin and 606.8 kg opium. The stimulant tablets confiscated amounted to 8.3 million.

During the poppy cultivation season in 2004-05, a total of 3,270 hectares of such plantations were destroyed in Shan, Kachin, Kayah and Sagaing states and divisions.

Myanmar has been implementing a 15-year total drug eradication plan (1999-2000 to 2013-14) in three phases each running for five years. It has now entered into the second phase.

Myanmar successfully established two opium-free zones, one in Mongla in 1997 and the other in Kokang in 2003.

Source: Xinhua