Bosses offer preemptive buy

Drugs

Bosses offer preemptive buy

The seeds have been sown in some places, whereas in many others, farmers are still waiting for the year's unusual downpour to break off before they could follow suit, but already Chinese and Kokang financiers are offering to pay advance to the poppy farmers in Wa areas though their agents, reports S.H.A.N. correspondent Hawkeye from the Chiangmai border:

"The payment, as is normal in the Wa hills, is calculated in old British coins, "a trader from Kengtung, for two years one of S.H.A.N.'s principal sources, tried to enlighten Hawkeye. "If you're buying during harvest time, you'll be paying no less than 110 coins, but right now it's only between 65-70."

The current exchange rates for 1 old British coin are 1,350 kyat, 93 baht and 22 yuan respectively. "Of course, there is not enough coins to go around," he continued. "So you usually pay them in all 4 currencies. The baht is least in demand though, Thailand being too far away for most of them."

The trader witnessed poppy fields in Mongpawk, Mongka, Mongngen and Mawfah on the eastern side of the Salween and Tangyan on the west bank. "Last year, there was a poppy plot right behind the UN office in Mongka," he remembered. "People say they couldn't care less about the UN, as they won't be allowed to grow it anymore starting next year."

The UN Office on Drug and Crimes, formerly known as UN Drug Control Programme, has, since 1998, funded an opium eradication project in the district of Mongpawk which comprises 5 townships: Mongpawk, Hotao, Mongphen, Mongka and Nam Phai.

The Wa leader Bao Youxiang has promised to declare the Wa region a drug-free zone on 26 June 2005.