Drugs torched


YANGON: Myanmar’s junta has burnt more than 20 million dollars worth of drugs seized during a recent campaign against ethnic rebel forces in the remote northeast by the Chinese border, state media said on Sunday. Prime Minister Thein Sein attended the torching ceremony on Saturday in Kokang, a mainly ethnic Chinese region of Shan state, where clashes broke out between the regime and rebels in August, the New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported. The report said the drugs were seized from 50 different hideouts in Laukkai, the region’s main town, between August 11 and October 24, beginning with a raid by security forces on a factory owned by Kokang rebel leaders. This sparked fighting with the Kokang group in breach of a 20-year-long ceasefire, which prompted an exodus of more than 30,000 refugees into China and earned Myanmar a rare rebuke from Beijing, usually its closest ally.