[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index ][Thread Index ]

4/4)AW: 23-JAN-98 BURMA INSIDE STOR



ASIAWEEK 23 JANUARY 1998
Part 4 of 4
INSIDE STORY DRUGS:
IS MYANMAR ASIA'S FIRST NARCO-STATE ? 
COMPELLING EVIDENCE POINTS TO THAT DUBIOUS DISTINCTION
By Anthony Davis and Bruce Hawke
--------------------------------

KICKING THE HABIT GETS HARDER

There is only one charitable interpretation of why narco-barons and
their associates are quietly taking over Myanmar's private sector: The
government is prepared to turn a blind eye to the process in the
overriding interests of securing peace, integrating insurgent-held areas
into the national mainstream and, at the same time, promoting economic
development -- if necessary with dirty money. "The regime feels it has
the upper hand on the traffickers and can force them to use their money
for the good of the country," says a veteran Western narcotics official.

Those who are actually prepared to credit the junta with a long-term
narcotics strategy say the government may hope that over time today's
drug lords, attracted by the prospect of making real money legally, may
mellow into legitimate tycoons. "Just as the government wants to deal
with opium cultivators by showing them a different way to make a living,
so it is trying to deal with leaders by showing them too there's a
different way of making a living," says a diplomat in Yangon. "We'll let
you go legit, if you stop your refining and trafficking."

Both Asian and Western diplomats point to the junta's more muscular
approach to narcotics interdiction in the field over the past year.
Military units have attacked narcotics convoys and refineries, while
drug seizures have risen -- albeit from a conspicuously low base. In
1996 one ton of opium and 500 kg of heroin were seized. "It's still
spotty and not uniformly effective, but there's increasing military
pressure against the whole area," concedes one diplomat. For its part,
the regime -- to widespread incredulity -- ha vowed to enforce
"opium-free zones" in border areas by 2000.

The notion that Yangon's corruption-riddled regime is able -- or willing
-- to forced a well-entrenched narco-mafia to become respectable
businessmen is probably naive. The traffickers have evinced no interest
in turning their backs on drugs in a favor of legitimate business. In
January 1991, Kokang warlord Peng Jia-sheng assured visiting U.N.
officials to plans to end heroin production in Special Region No. 1
within one year and eradicate opium cultivation within seven. But the
opium poppy still blooms in Kokang and heroin production in the region
continued its relentless rise during the early 1990s.

Indeed, the narco-traffickers themselves undoubtedly view their
situation in Myanmar today rather differently from the junta. "They're
building for the future, entrenching themselves and making investments,"
says the intelligence source. "They feel they have the generals in their
pockets." Just how many generals is open to debate. But they certainly
have quite a few colonels and majors. At unit level, military complicity
in both narcotics production and transport has been long-standing, a
situation aggravated by the collapse of the kyat and dire conditions in
the field.

There is no hard evidence that military involvement is orchestrated from
Yangon as a matter of policy. However, the repatriation and laundering
of narco-profits, as well as the impunity enjoyed by the traffickers has
reached an institutionalized level. A diplomat, impatient over Yangon's
conspicuous inaction over money-laundering says: "There is no question
that this government ha a 'don's ask' policy over the source of funds or
start-up capital used by these groups."

Moreover, a recent anti corruption purge does not appear to have hurt
the operations of major narco-traffickers. "What they're going after is
the personal squeeze typified by [purged ex-ministers] Kyaw Ba and Tun
Kyi," says the intelligence source. "The drug barons aren't hurting. Its
business as usual." Significantly, on Dec.11, an article in the
state-run Yangon press announced the blacklisting of the Kyone Yeom
Group for "submitting false accounts." But after meeting between Wa
leaders and junta chief Khin Nyunt, the minister responsible was
abruptly shunted to an inactive post.

Whether Myanmar can be said to constitute a "narco-state" remains for
the most part a matter of sematics and opinion. Fact is, however, that
narco-capitalists and their close associates are now involved in running
ports, toll roads, airlines, banks and industries, often in joint
ventures with the government. And the junta is increasingly dependent on
narco-dollars to keep a floundering economy above water. The danger is
that they wary but mutually beneficial relationship between  Myanmar's
military regime and drug barons becomes a habit that is ever more
difficult to kick. For ultimately their survival may depend on it.

ANTHONY DAVIS is an Asiaweek Special Correspondent. BRUCE HAWKE is a
business journalist specializing in Myanmar.

-- 
HTTP://www.physics.adelaide.edu.au/~uneoo
EMAILS: drunoo@xxxxxxxxxxxx, uneoo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
POSTMAIL: Dr U Ne Oo, 18 Shannon Place, Adelaide SA 5000, AUSTRALIA
[http://freeburma.org/[http://www.angelfire.com/al/homepageas/index.htm]
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =