Myanmar Won’t Extradite Drug Suspect

Myanmar will not extradite reputed Golden Triangle opium warlord Khun Sa to the United States, where he is wanted on heroin trafficking charges, Foreign Minister Ohn Gyaw said Friday.

Ohn Gyaw’s comments marked the first time that a senior Burmese official has publicly said Yangon had no plan to extradite Khun Sa, who surrendered to government forces last month.

In Washington, the United States voiced disappointment over what State Department spokesman Glyn Davies described as a “negative development” and renewed its appeal to the Yangon government to hand Khun Sa over.

Khun Sa, once described by former U.S. Atty. Gen. Richard L. Thornburgh as the “prince of death,” is wanted in the United States on heroin trafficking charges.

Davies said: “We’ve made no secret of the fact that the drug lord Khun Sa is somebody we’d like to get our hands on because of what he’s been up to in the Golden Triangle,” an opium poppy producing area on the borders of Laos, Thailand and Myanmar, formerly known as Burma.

“If the government of [Myanmar] has made a deal with him, that is very unfortunate,” Davies told a news briefing.

Khun Sa, who was indicted by a U.S. court in December 1989, surrendered to Burmese government forces last month. A Burmese Defense Ministry official denied Friday that there had been any deal giving Khun Sa amnesty in exchange for his giving up a guerrilla war against the Yangon government.