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UN says Burma is world's largest supplier of opium
The United Nations says Burma is the world's largest producer of opium, accounting for some 50 or 60 percent of the global supply of the drug.
The United Nations International Narcotics Control Board says Burma, which receives little international aid in fighting the drug trade for political reasons, was the major cultivator of opium poppies in 2001.
Burma overtook Afghanistan in poppy cultivation, which produces both opium and heroin, after a ban by the Taliban militia on poppy-growing slashed Afghan opium production by 90 percent.
This week the United States waived narcotics sanctions against Afghanistan in a bid to support its interim government, but kept them in place in Burma.
The US says Rangoon has done extremely little to crack down on the production of both opium and methamphetamine.
27/02/2002 04:03:07 | ABC Radio Australia News
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