Junkies queue up for dope in Monghsu

Drugs

Junkies queue up for dope in Monghsu

The gemland southeast of Monghsu in southern Shan State is where addicts can line up openly to buy their daily doses without fear of arrest by authorities, according to ceasefire sources.

"There is no action taken," wrote an officer who was recently in Monghsu, 189 miles northeast of Shan State's capital Taunggyi, "because drugs on sale include those seized by the officials elsewhere."

Look-pu (The Crab Hole) on the gem hills of Loi Hseng, 16 miles southeast of Monghsu, is where the peddlers and their customers do their trade, right under the eyes of the military authorities, they claim.

At the time of the reporting, the battalion on tour in the gemland is Infantry Battalion 287 from Wanzing, 50 miles south of Monghsu. Its job, according to the sources, is to collect taxes for the battalion and send part of it to Taunggyi-based Eastern Region Command headquarters.

Items for taxation are as listed below:

• Three-month residence permit 500 kyat/person

• Gambling Games:
  - Lay-gawng-gin joints 10 x 50,000 kyat per day
  - Mark-king-loi joints 30 x 30,000 kyat per day

• Automobile 85,000 kyat per year

• Maintenance of Monghsu-Loi Hseng road: (average) 60 vehicles per day x 700 kyat

"The road conditions, nevertheless, have not improved," wrote the same officer. "Could you believe that I had to spend one night in Namtawng, half way from Monghsu, before reaching there the next day?"

Paying automobile tax to the military also does not exempt one from being requisitioned by the Army to stand by at the garrison post for its use. All 4-wheeler owners in town are required to leave their vehicles at the Army's disposal in rotation.

Monghsu, a quiet out-of-the-way township until 1991, became a booming place after its rubies were found to be marketable.