Drug Politics of Burma

Opium poppy cultivation in Burma is swelling all over again in areas controlled by the military regime or the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), according to a report just published by the Paluang Women's Organization (PWO). Shockingly, number of drug addicts is increasing rapidly in Shan state where opium is now being grown. At the same time as the rising of poppy growing is also killing the traditional tea cultivation in northern parts of the country.

PWO says opium cultivation in Burma's northern Shan State has increased five-fold in recent years. The actual areas of opium cultivation in Northern Shan State documented by PWO is much higher than the areas given by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).During 2008-9 season, the acreage of 2 out of 23 townships in Northern Shan State found by PWO was nearly 3 times the total estimation recorded by UNODC for the 23 townships.

UNODC’s assessment for 2008-9 acreage of opium in 23 townships is 1,600 while PWO’s survey on 2 townships alone shows 4,545 acres. In the township of Man Tong, the group says, about 85 percent of males over the age of 15 are addicted to opium or heroin.

In the report - Poisoned Hills - issued on 26 January 2010, the organization accuses Burmese authorities, army leaders and pro-government militia of profiting by extorting funds from opium farmers. Luway Daug Jar, a coordinator with the organization, says the increased opium production hurts the local economy, by reducing tea crops and a growing number of drug addicts.

Luway Daug Jar said that Paluang people are growing opium in order to pay enough tax, in order to feed those militias and those soldiers who are in command of exploiting the local economy. At the same time those drugs are destroying the young generation and the region’s future. So the drug question in the Paluang areas is just like a vicious cycle.

In the “Poisoned Hills”, field assessments were conducted of opium growing over three seasons in two main areas: Mantong and Namkham. The Report says, “It was found that the number of villages growing opium in the targeted survey area of Mantong Township has tripled from 2006 to 2009. PWO surveyed 75 villages in Mantong. During the 2006-7 season only 24 of these villages grew opium. This increased to 35 villages in the following season. By the 2008-9 seasons all of the villages were growing opium.”

It continued that poppy cultivation has increased six fold from 2006 to 2009, from 1,568 acres (635 hectares) to 9,707 acres (3,928 hectares).

Moreover, the Golden Triangle is the still partially unexplored and unhandled region that unites the very Southern tip of China with northern Burma and Laos. The impenetrability of that topography and the restrictions on state power, especially in Laos and Burma, made it easier said than done for state or trans-state agencies to make a way into the region and monitor the growth of opium. Particularly in Burma, the government has been quite incapable to be in charge of those border regions which are dominated by dissenter ethnic minorities and, in some cases, by criminal warlords.

Debbie Stothardt, the spokeswoman for the Burma rights group the Alternative ASEAN Network, says UNODC officials did not rely on the proficiency of local organizations in Burma.

"UNODC and international agencies do not even have the guts using the information collected by these brave natives, because they do not want to criticize the military authorities of Burma who have shaped this situation that make communities to grow opium and perpetuate the situation of economic deficiency and the dawdling of those areas," she said.

Most analysts on drug issue pointed out poverty as a major reason for Shan State’s continuing drug problem. Opium crops only need a short time to grow and promptly generate income for impoverished farmers. To stop growing poppy, an alternative through cash crop substitution programs must be provided. According to some political analysts, poppy growing and opium production in Shan State have increased over the past two years due to political volatility in Burma and growing economic despondency caused by cronyism, corruption and unprofessional conduct of the junta.

The Paluang Women's Organization says that political reforms, improved security and stronger economic growth are needed to shift farmers away from growing opium and to cut drug addiction.

The making of illicit drugs in Burma has considerable international, regional and national end results. At the international level, the opium and heroin produced in the country are consumed in Asia distributed through China and Thailand as well as the rest of Asia, reaching destinations as far away as Australia, North America and Europe.

At the regional level, drugs are at the root of many problems facing the countries of the Golden Triangle today, including the spread of HIV/AIDS fuelled by injecting drug use, corruption of border officials and the large influence of criminal elements seeking on undermining the rule of law and further instability in the border areas. Many of these effects are also felt at the national level, particularly the spread of HIV/AIDS due to injecting drug use.

Likewise, the continuation of wide-ranging crime and its resultant network of lawlessness and insecurity, both locally and regionally, enrich criminals and their cronies. In contrast, those with the potential and desire to change the country’s political path towards transparency and accountability are further marginalized.

Beyond this, the drug trade supports the country’s informal economies, which conform to a political status quo.

Burma is the second largest opium producing nation after Afghanistan, as said by the United Nation. Burma’s Minister for Home Affairs and Chairman of the Central Committee for Drug Abuse Control, Maj-Gen Maung Oo said the drug eradication program had effectively brought down the cultivation of opium in the country. But observers of the drug issue in Burma speak out that there is very little progress.

PWO’s document says that the SPDC is allowing poppy to be grown in areas under its control. In addition, the military regime has been allowing local authorities to extort tariff from growers, traffickers and addicts. It is also in the process of expanding militia security units which actually are engaged in the drugs trade. Thus, the junta is pursuing a strategy of military buildup in the Shan state to keep up control and crack down the ethnic resistance movements instead of entering into political dialogue.

It seems that unless the strategies of militarization of SPDC are challenged, drugs trade will take place ad infinitum, as if the drug is a kind of weapon for SPDC to grab hold of the sovereign power. Thus, a negotiated resolution of the root cause of civil war in Burma is immediately needed so as to tackle the drug question which intertwined with the country’s long-lasting political conundrum.

The Burmese public feels it is time for the world body to raise this half-century-long political conflict in the U.N. Security Council. They hope for a global arms embargo against Burma's military junta, and an investigation into crimes against humanity and war crimes committed by the military regime.

Several of such crimes were deeply connected with drugs businesses manipulated by the SPDC.

- Asian Tribune -