Activists blocked from torching poppy field by Myanmar army

Police and military stopped around 3,000 members of the Pat Jasan, a Christian group of anti-narcotics campaigners, on February 16 near the town of Wine Maw. One week on, the stand-off was still under way.

"It seems the authorities will keep blocking us, although they show no signs of cracking down on us," Pala Lum Hkawng, a member of PatJasan, told dpa by phone.

"There was a small fight between Pat Jasan members and authorities yesterday following an army officer's attack on a reporter," he said.

Pat Jasan formed two years ago and has campaigned to eradicate local poppy fields, whose crop is used to produce opium and heroin.

Myanmar is the world's second-largest opium producer after Afghanistan, according to the United Nations.

A Kachin activist, Khun Ja, said the poppy fields were located in an area controlled by a local militia.

"It is too bad that authorities blocked the anti-drug campaigners instead of providing the security to go and destroy the poppy fields," Khun Ja said.

"These poppy fields are owned by the militia, not by the individual farmers," she said.

Local police did not make any official comment on the stand-off.

A local officer, who did not wish to be named, told dpa: "The militia would not tolerate the Pat Jasan members from destroying their poppy fields just before harvesting. That's why we are blocking them."

A powerful militia leader in the area was quoted by local media saying Pat Jasan was seeking funds from international organisations in exchange for destroying the poppy fields.

"I want to ask why they've come to destroy the poppy fields at this time. Why not when the farmers started growing the poppy? The farmers will lose everything if they are let through," said militia leader and former member of parliament Zakhung Ting Ying.

- DPA