Beyond the deadline: Do Wa have what it takes?

Drugs

Beyond the deadline: Do Wa have what it takes?

With the June deadline to declare the Wa region along the Chinese border a drug free zone just over a month away, many officers and men in the United Wa State Army are asking whether the leadership in the Wa capital of Panghsang is really ready to take the bull by the horns, reports Hawkeye from the border:

Many questions from battalion commanders downwards still await convincing answers from the leadership, according to an insider source from Panglong, Hopang township, such as

• Who is going to feed the people and for how long?

• What crop substitution projects are there in store?

• Can the leadership guarantee reliable markets for the substitute crops?

"The leaders may say there are several legitimate businesses, like the Yangon Airline, Hongpang Company, and others," said an officer with the rank of major. "But most of the stocks and shares in these firms do not belong to the UWSA but to the individual holders. how then are they going to feed, clothe and arm the army?

Other sources predict a classic balloon effect, the movement of poppy cultivators to previously untouched areas to escape enforcement measures, like when one part of a balloon is squeezed, the air moves to another part and the result is that the total amount of air remains more or less the same. "And they don't have to worry about the capital", argued another officer, "because there is no shortage of pawliang (financiers) when it comes to growing opium."

The New Era Journal, May issue, also quotes a former UWSA member Ah Jae who recently returned to Thailand where his family has a home: "In the Panghsang area, rubber, tea and oranges are being grown extensively. The gem enterprise and zinc mining are being expanded. There is also a cigarette factory. However, success depends largely on China."

As for Thailand, it does not impose tariffs on the import of fruits grown under the UWSA control, reported Bangkok Post, 20 April issue, because Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra wants to help the Wa in renouncing their centuries-old way of life.

However, even Thaksin acknowledges that "the war on drugs will not be successful without national reconciliation in Burma", noted Thai Press Reports on 15 October 2003.

Chairman Bao Youxinag has long promised to "chop off my head" if a poppy plant is found after the 26 June 2005 deadline.