No.11 - 02/2006
20 February 2006

Drugs

The year the gods are kind

One thing farmers and traders alike agree is that the ongoing 2005-2006 poppy season has been one for bumper crops in Shan State.

Up in the north, where Rangoon had launched a fierce anti-drug campaign 4 years earlier, poppy fields have returned in several townships, especially in Namkham where the pro-military leader Kyaw Myint is working closely with local Burmese commanders and Kutkhai where the Kachin Defense Army, a ceasefire group, is strictly left alone. In Mantong and Namhsan, where the Palaung State Liberation Army had surrendered their arms to the Burma Army, more poppy fields are seen alongside the traditional tea plantations. The exception is Tangyan, where the Manpang militia leader Bo Mon, a former Khun Sa associate, has imposed restrictions on the locals. "The local military and police has also destroyed some poppy fields, but not those of the Lahu farmers," a Shan trader told S.H.A.N. "Because unlike Shans and Palaungs, most of whom are averse to the draft, Lahu are more willing to serve either in the military or militia services."

The sources also find decrease in areas controlled by the United Wa State Army (UWSA) along the Chinese border, a clear sign that its leader Bao Youxiang's promise last year to make the Wa region drug free was not just an exercise in public relations. "Many fields are still around though," said a businessman coming back from Panghsang, the Wa capital. "Only they are no longer within striking distance of Panghsang. Many farmers have also gone to areas controlled by the Burma Army units like Mawfa (southwest of Panghsang) to grow their poppies."

Down south, the PaO and Shan farmers in Hsihseng and Hopong townships are engaging in double, some of them even triple, croppings. Many are also reported to be growing poppies in their lowland paddy fields following annual rice harvest in October. "The locals there, especially the PaOs, have also learned to reduce the bulk of the opium resin (by 90%) by cooking them into morphine," recounted a migrant laborer in Thailand who recently returned from the area. "It is easier for the owner either to store or transport the fruit of his toil in a reduced form."

Flourishing fields are also reported in other southern townships like Mongpan, Monghsu, Mongnai, Namzang and Kunhing. Farmers in Kunhing's Namlao village tract pay 10% tax for every viss (1.6 kg) to the local military units: LIB (Light Infantry Battalion) 286 and LIB 524. "The military receives its tax in cash," said a local trader. "The price of opium there is 500,000 kyat ($420) per viss. But some villages are said to have paid them lump sum, 1.5 million ($1,250) kyat per village."

High yields are also reported in Mongton, Monghsat and Mongpiang in the east. At Loi Khilek, most of the fields there are worked by villagers hired by a Kokang boss connected to the UWSA, who has assumed the Shan name of Paw Htao Kham (Grandpa Kham). At Kawng Teevee, opposite Maehongson, the fields are personally run by Nang Myint, wife of Jalaw Bo, a UWSA commander.

Rangoon has been reportedly engaged in destruction campaigns since December, but local commanders and officials' efforts to eradicate opium have been unenthusiastic. "When they are on a destruction mission, most would consult with the local headmen which fields they should choose to destroy," explained a shop-keeper in Mongton, opposite Chiangmai. "Then what they do is to slash it down, take photographs and submit a glossy report to their authorities."

All sources claim the figures given by Rangoon are "absolutely unreliable." "In Mongkerng (southern Shan State), the farmers lost about 100 viss (160 kg), but they still could harvest more than 1,000 viss," said a native of the township. "But their report said all the fields had been wiped out."

S.H.A.N. source in Mongton concurs. "On 21 January, the local police was ordered to destroy the fields in Hopang (southeast of Mongton), but what they did destroy was a field of rather poor yield. They didn't touch any fields not suggested by the village headman."

The reason for the local commanders and officials' reluctance is not difficult to find out. "It is due to the self-reliance policy instituted by the military government," said a militia member in Tachilek, opposite Maesai. "The central government can live by foreign investments and loans but the local military and police units can only survive by their wits."