Bank crackup worse than drug crackdown

Bank crackup worse than drug crackdown

Drugs

The bank crisis in Burma has hit its drug operatives harder than the Thai campaign against drugs, said a Shan businessman who recently arrived in Myawaddy, opposite Thailand's Tak Province. 

"The worst consequence for us was the trouble we had to take together with the expenses that went with it to divert the goods from Mongton, Monghsat and Tachilek to other avenues," the 35-year old northern Shan, who declined to be named, explained. "We knew that the border along there would be closely watched by the Thai officials. In addition, the locals wouldn't be happy about us outsiders wresting away their shrinking number of customers at this time." 

He said the current bank disaster was far worse. "First, we cannot use the banks for transferring money," he told S.H.A.N.. "We cannot even withdraw our own money deposited in the banks. Instead, we were forced to borrow from private money lenders paying 5% (monthly) interest. We were also obliged to use either them or business firms for our remittances. Moreover, you can get hold of the goods only if you pay 25-30% down. Naturally, that cost and that in turn has, to some extent, propelled drug prices to rise." 

The goods, a minimum of 500,000 yaba (methamphetamines) pills, can be delivered to the buyer in southern Shan State at an appointed location, according to him, at 120 kyat per pill. The retail price is 200 kyat but down in Myawaddy it soars up to 400-500. Heroin, meanwhile, is K 2,000,000 in Taunggyi and K 5,000,000 in Myawaddy. 

Transportation, he found out, was rarely a problem. "There are few checkpoints between Taunggyi and Myawaddy, except at the bridge over the Salween (near Pa-an), Kawkareik and Myawaddy itself" he pointed out, "but with the help from a few local friends and especially the DKBA (a Karen ceasefire group), the problems are easily straightened out." 

The transportation fee is said to be 5-10 kyat per pill depending on the distance. 

Shipping drugs is less of a problem for the Wa than any other drugs syndicates in the country. For one thing, they have Hong Pang Co. trucks going into Wa towns through Tangyan in the west and Kengtung in the south, bringing in the much needed rice and other foodstuffs. On their way back, the empty trucks are refilled with Chinese merchandise bound for Mandalay and Rangoon. "They are never searched," he assured S.H.A.N..

Drugs are also hauled out of the Wa areas through a number of crossings on the Salween to the Mao (Shweli) valley in the north, to Tangyan and central Shan State and to the gemland of Monghsu into southern Shan State. 

Kunhing, 130 miles east of Taunggyi, known for myriad violations of human rights as recorded by rights groups, is also known to drug traders as "the junction" where "goods" coming from the north are distributed to other parts of Shan State. 

The source confirmed Rangoon's campaign against drugs in the north. "Drug production in northern areas, as a result, have dropped,' he said. "But the reduction is more than made up by production in the south. We are even seeing more Kokang factories down there." 

According to Xinhua News Agency, 23 April 2003, opium output in Burma has dropped sharply from 2,560 tons in 1996 to 630 tons in 2002. But ground reports have argued against official figures.