[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index
][Thread Index
]
Quandary on Burma and Drugs
- Subject: Quandary on Burma and Drugs
- From: moe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 17 Dec 1999 19:57:00
NOTES FROM HERE AND THERE
Quandary on Burma and Drugs
Lewis Dolinsky
Wednesday, December 15,
1999
Members of Burma's junta, including one of its big
three, were pleasant to South Bay Republican Tom
Campbell when he met them recently in Rangoon.
They want an end to the U.S. ban on new investment
in Burma; he wants opium poppies eradicated, or at
least a serious attempt. If drugs really can be stopped
at the source, he came to the right place. As much as
50 percent of the world's heroin originates in Burma,
much of it in areas where the junta has negotiated
``uneasy truces'' (Campbell's phrase) with tribal
armies.
Campbell and two other congressmen -- Democrat
Donald Payne of New Jersey and Republican John
Cooksey of Louisiana -- were escorted to northern
Burma by Colonel Kyaw Thein, who had negotiated
many of the cease-fires (which do not include the
Karen ethnic group). When Campbell's party
reached territory held by the NDAA (National
Democratic Alliance Army), the colonel stopped
answering questions and the NDAA started doing
the talking. ``I went in with the government,''
Campbell said in a telephone interview, ``but they
(the tribesmen) were the law.''
Legitimate enterprise in these areas is geared not to
Rangoon but to China. In Mongla, Campbell saw a
casino and tourist hotel, a Catholic church and
Buddhist pagoda. A sugar factory had shut down;
China has plenty.
Campbell doesn't want to be a ``one-day wonder''
(instant expert), and he is vague on some details. But
he notes that farmers could grow buckwheat or rice
instead of poppies, but then what? There are no
roads to get a crop to Rangoon. If the Chinese don't
want it, there's no buyer. But there is always a
market for opiate. A middleman comes to the door
and pays up front, though not generously.
Poppy cultivation has dropped in Burma. Democracy
leader Aung San Suu Kyi (``phenomenal, great
presence, I have nothing but admiration for her'')
attributes this decrease to drought. She told Campbell
that the junta, if it had the will, could stamp out poppy
production as it has stamped out human rights. She
says that nothing but humanitarian aid should come
into Burma, that when the government falls, the
tribes will be part of the political process and won't
need bullets, or drug money to buy them. The West
will want to invest in a democracy.
Campbell has no reason to think that the junta will
fall. He acknowledges that investment needed to
provide roads to get rice to market will shore up a
brutal regime that voided elections won by Suu Kyi's
party in 1988. He also knows that elements within
the government and military profit from drugs;
Burma runs on drugs. But he was told by neighboring
Thailand's deputy foreign minister, Sukhumbhand
Paribatra, ``We don't approve of the government of
Burma, but we do work with them on drug
eradication and you should be open to doing the
same.'' Campbell is undecided. A meeting with the
State Department on Monday may help make up his
mind.
Since returning December 2 from his Asian tour -- a
day in Thailand, five in Vietnam, four in Burma --
Campbell has been running hard for the GOP Senate
nomination to oppose Democratic incumbent Dianne
Feinstein. Burma policy is not expected to play a big
part in that election. Drug policy might.