High on Drugs

[dohrs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Reply-To: "W. Kesavatana-Dohrs" <dohrs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>




Feb. 20, 1997

pp: 12

Headline:  High on Drugs

Text:

Opium production in Burma's northernmost Kachin State is increasing
rapidly.  The state was declared an "opium-free zone" by the rebel Kachin
Independence Organization in the early 1990's, and American satellites
subsequently recorded a decline in poppy cultivation.  But the anti-opium
scheme seems to have fallen apart after the KIO signed a ceasefire
agreement in 1993 with the Rangoon junta.  The regime appears to have
encouraged local farmers to grow poppies in the areas it controls, and the
Kachin rebels have been unable to sustain their anti-drug campaign.
Increased production has been observed especially in the northern and
western parts of Kachin State.  What looks like official connivance in the
drug trade in Burma is also noticable elsewhere:  There are now four
heroin refineries in Mandalay, the first evidence of refining activity
taking place inside a major Burmese city.

End.