A new briefing paper by the Palaung Women’s
Organization (PWO) exposes a dramatic increase in opium cultivation in
Burma's northern Shan State in the constituency of a drug lord elected
into the new military-backed parliament
.
Still Poisoned, a follow-up to PWO’s 2010 Poisoned Hills report,
documents how opium cultivation in 15 villages in Namkham Township has
soared since the November 2010 election to over 1,100 hectares, an
increase of over 78% in only two years. The opium trade in this area is
controlled by “Pansay” Kyaw Myint, head of a pro-regime “People’s
Militia Force” and elected MP for Burma’s ruling Union Solidarity and
Development Party.
PWO research also shows that opium growing
has spread to 12 new villages in Namkham in the past year, and regime
troops, police and militia have been openly taxing opium farmers.
There has consequently been a disturbing
increase in drug addiction among local Palaung communities. PWO found
that in one village, over 90% of males aged 15 and over were now
addicted to either opium or heroin, more than double the rates recorded
two years earlier.
When campaigning to be elected into
parliament, Kyaw Myint promised villagers they could grow opium for five
years if they voted for him.
“After the election, opium cultivation and
drug addiction in our communities has worsened,” said a villager from
Namkham. “Now militia leader Kyaw Myint has become an MP, he has more
power to deal in drugs.”
PWO’s latest research underlines the urgent
need to address the political problems at the root of the drug problem
in Burma.
“Local paramilitary leaders are being
allowed to cultivate and profit from drugs in return for helping the
regime suppress ethnic resistance forces,” said Lway Nway Hnoung,
principal researcher of the report. “Burma’s civil war and drug
production are two sides of the same coin.”
PWO is calling for a nationwide ceasefire
and a tripartite dialogue which addresses the political aspirations of
Burma’s ethnic nationalities as the most effective way to address the
opium problem in the long-term.
Contacts:
Lway Nway Hnoung- (+66) 821 648 115
Lway Cherry- (+86) 13988239760
Lway Seng Bloh- (+66) 856057318
Lway Nway Hnoung- (+66) 821 648 115
Lway Cherry- (+86) 13988239760
Lway Seng Bloh- (+66) 856057318
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