Instability fuels return of opium in Burma

Opium poppy cultivation in Burma increased from 21,500 hectares in 2006 to 27,700 hectares this year - an increase of 29 per cent, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

However, experts at the UNODC who released the report on opium production in the Golden Triangle were unable to specific how "high" the level was of the peopled involved and had benefited from the production.

"A 'high' level could be any definition or any range or any level," Sharig Bin Raza, the representative of UNODC Myanmar (Burma) Office told a press conference.

Opium production was mostly focused in southern Shan State, which was not the most stable part of the country and the government's control could be loose, he said. "There is the presence of a number of troops - insurgents, and ceasefire groups. It is a combination of these factors; corruption and collusion, and this is what the UNODC intends to take up with the concerned authorities," Bin Raza said.

Second only to Afghanistan, Burma's share of the global opium poppy cultivation fell from 55 per cent in 1998 to 11 per cent last year, before increasing slightly to 12 per cent this year, the UN report said.

The sharp increase in the amount of opium grown in Burma in 2007 was worrisome and undermined progress towards a drugfree Southeast Asia, the UN drug chief Maria Costa said in a press statement issued from Vienna.

However, some success was seen in Burma. Areas under control of ceasefire groups in Special Region One of Kokang, Special Region Two of Wa and Special Region Four of Shan were now opiumfree areas, said UNODC Illicit crop expert Xavier Bouan.

The Burmese government announced in 1999 to free the country of opium cultivation within 15 years and had managed to control growing and production in some areas including the upper Shan State, he said.

Attempts to eliminate cultivation by the Wa could not be considered a success story as the ethnic tribe had outsourced the production of opium to other groups, an official at Thailand's Narcotics Control Board said.

Of other countries in the Golden Triangle, Laos saw its opium cultivation decline from 2,500 hectares last year to 1,500 hectares this year - or down 40 per cent.

Meanwhile, cultivation in Thailand, which claimed it has 30 years of experience in poppy eradication, increased 30 per cent from 157 hectares in 2006 - to 205 hectares this year, the UN report said.

Pipop Chamnivikaivong, from the Office of the Narcotics Control Board, blamed inaccessibility of opium poppy cultivation areas in Chiang Mai's Omkoi district for the failure to control the cultivation.

The relaxation of narcotic suppression after the military coup to topple Thaksin Shinawatra's government, which launched a tough campaign against illicit drugs, was also a factor contributing to the growth of poppy cultivation, he said.

Supalak G. Khundee

The Nation