Excerpts from Kokang interview

Drugs

Excerpts from Kokang interview

On 18 June, Salween News Network that focuses its news on Burma for Thai readers, was offered a rare opportunity to meet Peng Jiasheng, spelled in Burmese as Hpong Kya Shin, the leader of Kokang in Laokai (Laukkai).

According to Burma in Revolt by Bertil Lintner, he was born in 1931, went to Beijing in 1967 and, with arms and ammunition provided by China, occupied Kokang in 1968. In 1989, he mutinied against the Communist Party of Burma, concluded a ceasefire pact with Rangoon and became "one of Burma's most prominent drug traffickers." In 2002, following the Bangkok Post report on 18 March that the United States considered one of Kokang's ally, the Wa, as a terrorist organization, and subsequently facing disownment by Rangoon, he announced banning of drugs in areas under his control.

The interview covered topics like the UN food program, the buckwheat project and drug eradication. He refused to talk about politics. "You can ask other people, but not my poor self," he winked at SNN.

As the interview was conducted in Thai and the interpreter's proficiency in the language was quite limited, it took SNN some time to secure a proper translation for Peng's answers in Chinese which were tape-recorded.

S.H.A.N. takes this opportunity to express its thanks to SNN for the use of the material.

On UN food program

On 12 March, the United Nations World Food Programme announced a 1-year program to provide food assistance to 180,000 ex-poppy farmers, one-third of whom are in Kokang. It was a follow-up on last year's emergency donation of 760 tons of rice to 50,000 farmers in Kokang who had reportedly given up their traditional livelihood _ Editor's Note.

They visited us last year and asked for our opinion on their Food for Work Programme, giving 3 kg of rice per day to the participants in community activities such as road-building and bridge construction, while the school children, the disabled and elderly people are given half a kilo each per day. We said we were grateful because it was like getting free rice for nothing, but wouldn't it be better if they could help our people in their daily work in their fields? They told us the programme had already been successfully implemented in the Middle East. They made their own decisions, hired our people to transport rice from Lashio - we are of course thankful they pay for the transportation service - and managed their own programme with the local populace. Perhaps they were asking for our opinion only for the sake of etiquette. (Asked whether he knew that NGOs, namely, Asia Medical Doctor Association, Care Myanmar and World Vision were active in Kokang, he replied in the negative. Perhaps the interpreter had difficulty in understanding the word "NGO" or the Thai term for it.)

The rice brought to Kokang was of medium quality. No, I have no idea where they bought it (The WFP says it purchased rice directly from the government's commercial agency), but it came up from Mandalay.

So far they haven't begun on the distribution yet.

On buckwheat project

Buckwheat, consumed in Japan mostly in the form of soba noodles, was introduced to Kokang by Japan International Cooperation Agency in 1998. According to Myanmar Times, it started as a 4-acre project which eventually expanded to 400 areas. Two years after, it began exporting, initially 18 tons but the sum total has exceeded 200 tons, says its Burmese language 27 February issue, fetching $ 150 - 300 per ton. A Japanese company, Taiyo Fusan, had already signed a contract to purchase 100 tons at $ 230 per ton, and the first consignment, 25 tons, was shipped across China through Muse on 13 February. Its English language 16 February issue also reports JICA's Harayuki Shimada saying although the quality of Kokang buckwheat was good, lengthy journey to transport it to Japan via Singapore affected its quality and made it incompetitive. He also wanted promotion of buckwheat consumption in Thailand and Burma as Japanese market alone was limited _ Editor's Note.

It is a project not worth at all of the trouble we took. At first, they bought all the harvest at a very good price. So everybody wanted to grow it. But now that the output has increased, they (the Japanese) have begun stalling thereby shaking the ex-poppy farmer's confidence in the project.

As far as I know, there is no shipment to Japan via China. The problem is that you need to go through a lot of bureaucratic hurdles when you want to ship something through the Mainland. With Rangoon, the problem is that we have to pay heavy duty to export it, which doesn't cover the cost. The Japanese were really enthusiastic at first, but now they seem to have been discouraged by the said problems. As a result, nobody wants to grow it anymore.

The farmers, had they been given a choice, would have preferred buckwheat to opium. With favorable weather and soil, it brings them more income.

On opium eradication

Kokang is some 2,000 square kilometers, about one-eight of its southern neighbor, Wa. During the British years, according to the The Opium Question in Federal Shan States, 1931-36, Kokang produced about 20 tons annually and the Wa about 60 tons. However, according to Land of Jade by Bertil Lintner, "In Kokang, the fields had been neatly laid out on the hillsides, facing north to benefit from maximum sunshine. In striking contract, the Was planted their poppies wholly haphazardly; not a single field we passed was planted in orderly rows. Some poppies which caught the sun appeared strong and healthy; others, hidden in shade, were wretched, straggling growths." _ Editor's Note

We are known for drugs, but our output is not much. In 2002, we launched the opium-free program, three years earlier than we first planned. Since then, about ten nations have offered to assist us. We also requested assistance from Rangoon, but we received very little from them.

Understandably, there are places like Nankwang where people are still growing poppies, because it is difficult to withdraw from something that we have been engaging for untold generations right away. And out of a total population of 140,000, the number of those who can go by without growing poppies is less than 50,000. We therefore will need more time and more assistance, at least for 5 years.

To accomplish this, there are important factors we should consider:

For one thing, the UN should not buy seeds from Burma (proper), as they do go well with the conditions in Kokang. Kokang is more akin to Baoshan and Liaoling across the border. It would be better for us to purchase the seeds from them. Rubber, for instance, does well here, but each sapling costs 30 yuan (about $ 3.75). So we have been able to plant only 20,000 rubber trees. With more assistance, we can plant more.

Secondly, we would need a lot of fertilizers as the soil here is so poor.

Thirdly, it would truly be helpful to build a reservoir here. Experts say it would cost about 10 million yuan ($ 1.25 million), but that is well beyond our capacity.

Apart from that, we would need more hospitals, more schools, and an international market.

Please remember, we are trying to help the rest of the world by getting rid of drugs, and I hope the world doesn't think we are asking too much when we ask for assistance in the resolution of our resulting food problem.

More on Kokang tomorrow.