Authorities burn at least 200kg of drugs
SOME 200 kg of i l licit dr ugs were set on fire i n Stung Treng prov ince on Tuesday a f ter five prov incia l cour ts r uled t hat t heir hauls be t ra nspor ted t here to be dest royed, sa id t he deput y Nationa l Police chief Mak Chito, who is a lso deput y secreta r y-genera l of t he Nat iona l Aut horit y for Combat ing Drugs (NACD).
The drug burning ceremony was held at t he airport compound in Sre Por v illage in Stung Treng district’s Sra h Russey commune.
Attending the ceremony were Minister of Justice Ang Vong Vathana, prov incia l governor Mom Saroeun, five prov incia l deput y governors, Chito and some 2,600 students and residents.
Chito told The Post on Tuesday that Stung Treng was marking Internationa l Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Traf ficking, which fell on June 26.
Anti-drug chiefs from t he five prov inces – Kratie, Preah Vihear, Ratanak k iri, Mondulkiri and Stung Treng – had a lso requested that the seized drugs be set on fire, he said.
The 193kg of i l l icit dr ugs,
Chito sa id, had been sei zed by t he five prov incia l aut horit ies since ea rly la st yea r.
The prov i ncia l cour ts recent ly ordered t hat t he dr ugs be set on fire, while ca rs, motorbikes, houses a nd ot her confiscated proper t y were held as state proper t y pending a f ur t her cour t order.
“We have a Ministr y of Justice press release on burning drugs and teams led by their prov incia l prosecutors. But t he Ministr y of Justice has a nationa l level team which monitors the work in a l l prov inces.
“When we receive the order, we gather together and burn the drugs in one place. We a lso destroyed the drugs so people could clearly see what we were doing. We don’t want to keep them. If t he drugs are kept, it can be complicated and t hey are dif ficult to ta ke care of.
“If we seize more drugs in t he f uture, we will keep them at first and wait for a court ruling ordering t hat they are burned and we’ll do that ever y year or si x months once,” Chito said.
Stung Treng prov incia l police chief Mao Dara said that among the haul were cr ysta l methamphetamine, WY tablets and ketamine.
“We burned the drugs from a l l t he prov inces toget her. We will continue to carr y out more crackdowns and won’t spare any ef fort. After we’ve confiscated the drugs, we’ll set them on fire again,” he said.
Ratanak k iri prov incia l police chief Yin Chamnan said he had assigned an officia l to join the ceremony, but he was unsure of the amount of drugs ta ken from his province to Stung Treng.
“I assigned my specia list officia l to go because t his Tuesday I’m busy with another programme. I’m not sure of t he quantit y of drugs from Ratanak k iri that were burned,” Chamnan said.
Hou Sam Ol, Stung Treng prov incia l coordinator for rights group Adhoc, lauded the burning of the drugs and said t he aut horities should persevere despite the achievements t hey had a lready made.
“I’ve seen t hat in recent times, t he aut horities have rea lly made an effort and we’ve seen a series of crackdowns.
“But we are still concerned because even though there have been large sca le raids, dealers still dare to i mport drugs and it seems as if they haven’t learned a lesson or been daunted by the authorit ies,” he said.
He pointed out that more than two tonnes of i l l icit drugs were set on fire on June 26 i n Phnom Penh i n t he presence of Minister of Interior Sar Kheng.
A recent NACD report showed that since June 2017, t he aut horities have seized more than two tonnes of drugs, including amphetamine, ecstasy, heroin, ketamine, methamphetamine, nimetazepam and pyrovalerone.