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Mixed progress for Yangon's drug
war
By Larry Jagan
MUSE,
Myanmar - Myanmar's leaders are angry at the
international community, especially the United States,
for failing to acknowledge the government's efforts to
stamp out illicit drug production.
But
Washington says Myanmar is not doing enough to end the
trafficking of drugs from its Golden Triangle, which
borders China, Laos and Thailand. Thai anti-narcotics
agents say more than a billion yaba -
amphetamines - will be produced in Myanmar in the coming
months and flood across the border.
Myanmar's
government says it has halved opium production
throughout the country in the last poppy-growing season,
which ended earlier this year. "Poppy production is down
by more than 50 percent across the whole of Shan state,
while in some areas, poppy cultivation has been reduced
by nearly two-thirds," said Colonel San Pwint, one of
the Myanmese intelligence officers in charge of ensuring
an end to the country's drug production.
Traveling throughout Shan state along the
country's border with China - Muse is a Myanmese town on
the border - and Myanmar's section of the Golden
Triangle, there is little evidence of poppy production.
The major poppy plantations here have been
replaced by endless fields of alternative cash crops -
mainly oranges, mangoes, lychees, longans, coffee and
tea. Former poppy farmers have also been encouraged to
concentrate on ensuring food security by growing rice
and corn (maize).
There have even been attempts
to introduce integrated farming, where orchards are
broken up with vegetable plots and fish ponds, and
chickens are allowed to roam freely around the fruit
plantations.
Some are also experimenting with
intensive livestock projects, predominantly chicken and
pig farms, but crocodile farms as well. The military
authorities insist these crop-substitution projects have
enabled the local ethnic groups to stop growing poppy
and improve their standard of living at the same time.
"The whole region will certainly be drug-free by
the year 2005," said Colonel San Pwint.
In the
past two years, while the main rebel group in the
region, the Wa, have been steadily reducing their opium
production, another rebel group in this region adjacent
to China, the Kokang, have largely ignored the
government's drive against drugs.
"The Kokang
have completely stopped poppy production this year and
had started crop substitution projects through their
region," said the Kokang leader, Phon Kya Shin.
Increased pressure from China was the decisive
factor in convincing the Kokang leaders that there was
no option but to end opium production, according to
diplomatic sources in Yangon. The United Nations'
anti-drugs organization in Yangon, which conducts
extensive surveys throughout Myanmar's drug-production
areas, says initial impressions from this year's
research support the Kokang's claim.
It is all
part of the government's strategy to transform Shan
state from a major world producer of opium into a
prosperous agricultural and industrial center. These
industries are meant to supplement the extensive
cash-crop substitution projects that are meant to help
the poor farmers find alternative sources of income to
poppy.
"Everybody in Shan state is aware that
the government plans to eliminate opium-poppy production
within the next two years," said Jean-Luc Lemahieu, the
head the UN Drug Control Program (UNDCP) office in
Yangon. "Poor farmers and local officials alike are in
no doubt that poppy production will no longer be
tolerated. Even the remotest villages, where poverty
drove the farmers to grow poppy as a cash crop, know the
deadline."
But there are concerns about the
long-term viability of the government's plans.
The top Wa and Kokang leaders who have forced
the farmers to stop poppy production are hoping that
China will buy most of the produce that is now being
grown.
Some of the alternative crops being grown
are clearly meant to capitalize on the Chinese market.
Longans are being grown throughout Shan state as dried
longans are highly sought after across the border for
medicinal purposes. The Wa have been growing
prime-quality Chinese green tea for several years and
the Kokang have started to grow Sichuan pepper.
Most of these deals are being done on a local
bilateral basis and rely heavily on Chinese goodwill.
But there are fears that this will not be sustainable in
the long run. "Our new crops are already inferior to the
same products that are grown in China," said the Kokang
leader, Phon Kya Shin. "And I fear we'll not be able to
sell them there."
He wants international aid and
government support to improve the viability of the new
agricultural ventures in his region. He complained that
government interference had stopped an earlier
substitution project - producing cigarettes exported to
Bangladesh.
The UNDCP office in Yangon says the
Myanmar government is being over-ambitious in its plans
to stop poppy production within the next two years. "If
it is to be successful in the long run, [Yangon] needs
substantial international financial support, especially
for these alternative-cash-crop projects," said
Lemahieu.
But this is unlikely to be forthcoming
while Myanmar remains one of the world's largest
producers of methamphetamines.
While Myanmar's
military rulers are taking concerted steps to eradicate
poppy cultivation, they appear to be far less rigorous
in stamping out the production of methamphetamines in
the Golden Triangle.
In the past three years,
the production of yaba has remained at the same
relatively high level. Privately, UN and US
anti-narcotics agents agree with Thai military estimates
that some 1 billion tablets are manufactured in Myanmar
every year.
Until recently, most of this was
produced in mobile laboratories along Myanmar's border
with Thailand. Since the summit between Myanmar's Senior
General Than Shwe and Thai Prime Minister Thaksin
Shinawatra in February, some of these have moved inland.
Over the past two years, there has also been a
migration of mobile factories up to the border with
Laos. US intelligence sources believe this is where
majority of methamphetamine production is now taking
place, and some laboratories have been established
across the border.
The explosion of
methamphetamine production in Myanmar six years ago was
largely fueled by the demand for yaba in
Thailand. In the past two years, demand for the
synthetic drugs has also risen in China.
There
is no doubt that most amphetamine production takes place
in areas under Wa control, but Wa leader Bao Yuxiang
said: "We do not tolerate the production of synthetic
drugs in areas under our control.
"Anyone caught
in Wa territory using narcotics or involved in the
illicit drugs trade will be executed," he said. So far
no one has been executed, but there are more than 50
people in prison for drug-related offenses.
One
thing that the Wa leaders, Myanmar's military chiefs and
the Thai government seem to agree on now is that it is
criminal gangs that are behind the production and
trafficking of yaba and not the Wa. UN officials
agree and say they are mainly Chinese criminals, some
with connections to Hong Kong and Macau.
But
Thailand, which no longer officially blames the Wa but
criminal gangs for the flood of yaba into the
country, are anxious that Yangon takes more rigorous
action against the production of the synthetic drugs in
Myanmar.
"The next few months will be a real
test" for Yangon, said a Thai government official.
"The flood of drugs into Thailand has been
stemmed in the last few months during the prime
minister's war against drugs - so any major increase in
the coming months will reflect badly on Burma's
commitment to the battle against drugs," he said.
The message is clear: Myanmar must take more
effective action against the production of
methamphetamines if the international community is to
take Myanmar's efforts to make the country drug free by
2005 seriously.
"At present yaba seems to
be the most effective crop substitution program in the
Golden Triangle," remarked a senior Western diplomat in
Yangon.
(Inter Press Service)
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