Drug lords join Burmese Parliament

According to the Shan Drug Watch report released Wednesday, while the ceasefire areas along the Sino-Burma border remained opium free, survey results show opium was grown during the 2010-2011 season in 45 out of 50 Shan townships controlled by government troops.

 

“There has been a massive increase in poppy cultivation, as well as heroin and methamphetamine production, in the regime’s militia-controlled areas,” said Khuensai Jaiyen, principal author of the Shan Drug Watch report.

 

The report, put together by the Shan Herald Agency for News (SHAN), accused Burma's policy of military expansion has not only failed to curb narcotic trade but instead exacerbate the problem pro-government militia groups were given the green light to carry out the illicit trade in exchange for suppressing resistance groups. 

 

The report profiles seven druglords, all militia leaders, now serving as MPs for Burma’s ruling party, the Union Solidarity and Development Party in Shan State. They had promised voters they could grow poppies freely if they were elected, the report said. 

 

“If Burma’s generals are serious about making Burma drug-free by 2014, they must stop their war-mongering and negotiate a political settlement to the civil war,” said Khuensai Jaiyen, referring to Burma’s drug-free target date, set a year before that of Asean. 

 

Moreover, said the report, the increased availability of opium and heroin, methamphetamine or “yaba” has become the most popular drug among youth in Shan State, where the cost of a pill is as low as 1,500 kyat (US$1.7) compared to Bt100 (US$3.3) per pill across the border in Thailand.

 

The report came amid speculation that the new government of Burma, which is still largely controlled by the military, may be loosing its grip on the country with the freeing of political prisoners and talking to opposition camps. Observers and critics said the move was aimed at pleasing the international community in exchange for greater legitimacy and acceptance.