Nay Pyi Taw: The Myanmar anti-drug authorities seized a large amount of narcotic drugs worth of a street value of 5.71 billion U.S. dollars between April 2004 and October 2006, Police Chief Brigadier-General Khin Yi told a press conference here Wednesday.

The confiscated drugs include 1,973.78 kilograms (kg) of heroin, 1,473.51 kg of No.3 heroin, 3,649.76 kg of opium, 319.23 kg of marijuana, 3,019.3 kg of Amphetamine tablets and 1,795.2 kg of ephedrine.

At the press conference, Khin Yi also rejected the United States’ charge for Myanmar’s lack of performance in drug control in its bid to press for a U.N. Security Council resolution on Myanmar issue, citing many facts in identifying its achievements in the aspect.

Quoting an opium survey report of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Khin Yi noted that the country’s opium poppy cultivation fell 34 percent to 21,500 hectares in 2006, representing a dramatic 83 percent fall from 130,300 hectares in 1998.

Khin Yi also pointed out some areas where ethnic minorities inhabit have become poppy-free regions, citing Shan state’s Mongla, Kokang and Wa.

Noting that Myanmar has been implementing a 15-year plan (1999- 2000 to 2013-14) to totally eradicate poppy in three phases each  running for five years, he expressed Myanmar’s commitment to  maintain the present momentum of eliminating drugs in the country.

He went on to stress that “the situation in Myamar is something that does not need to be handled by the Security Council. On the contrary, it is the use of the security council to interfere in the internal affairs of Myanmar that can destroy the prevailing  peace and tranquility, prevalence of law and order, national unity, multifaceted development and democratic reform”.