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Drugs policy in Burma a failure: Palaung women
Poisoned Flowers: The Impacts of Spiraling Drug Addiction on Palaung women in Burma, a 68-page report published today...
No.5 - 06/2006
9 June 2006
Drugs
Drugs policy in Burma a failure: Palaung women
Poisoned Flowers: The Impacts of Spiraling Drug Addiction on Palaung women in Burma, a 68-page report published today by the Thai-border based Palaung Women's Organization says increased opium Palaung production and addiction among Palaung communities in Northern Shan State has brought home the failure of drug eradication programs under the Burmese military regime.
The report also challenges claims by both the regime and the UN Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC) that opium production in Burma has undergone a dramatic reduction, pointing out to two military-initiated programs in the Palaung areas:
- Allowing drug lords to expand production into the areas in exchange for policing against resistance activity
- Army monopoly of the trade in tea, traditional Palaung cash crop, that had kept its prices at a minimum
"Another reason is the forced surrender of the ceasefire group Palaung State Liberation Army (in April 2005)," says Lway Aye Nang, one the authors of Poisoned Flowers."With it went the last shreds of rule of Law (that had been in existence since the first Palaung resistance force was formed in 1963)."
The solution, maintains Lway Cherry, a co-author, is a democratic government " that cares about the welfare of its citizens."
Poisoned Flowers can be read from www.womenofburma.org
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