-Caveat Lector- Dave Hartley http://www.Asheville-Computer.com/dave >GREEN LEFT WEEKLY >E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Web: http://www.greenleft.org.au >- Number 386, 24 November 1999 - _________________________________________________________ > >BURMA: JUNTA'S LINKS TO DRUG DEALERS PROVEN _________________________________________________________ >By Sean Healy > >A videotape smuggled out of Burma by Thai drug investigators has provided >further evidence of the close links between Burma's military regime and >heroin traffickers. > >The videotape shows an October 1 meeting between intelligence chief >Lieutenant General Khin Nyunt and Burma's most powerful drug baron, Wei >Xuegang, in a village controlled by Wei's United Wa State Army (UWSA). > >According to the November 3 Bangkok Post, Khin was on an inspection tour of >Wei's new military headquarters and was seen in the video pointing at >building works and asking questions. "The general clearly was at ease in >the company of the drug lord and his commanders", stated the Post report. > >The regime denied any sinister undertones to the meeting, saying that it >was part of regime's efforts to convince the drug lords to change their >ways. > >Burma is the world's second largest producer of heroin, after Afghanistan. >The United Nations Drug Control Program claimed that, during the last poppy >growing season (September 1998 to February), 1085 tonnes of opium gum were >produced in Burma, enough to produce more than 100 tonnes of heroin. > >This figure is 38% less than the previous year's crop, a reduction that the >regime claims was a result of its programs but which the UNDCP claims was >due mainly to poor weather. > >The reduction was in any case more than offset by a dramatic increase in >the production of amphetamines; according to an official of Thailand's >Narcotics Control Board, 300 million amphetamine pills are produced >annually in areas controlled by the drug lords. > >The videotape is not the first report of a meeting between Khin and Wei. >The Bangkok Post reported on April 10 that they were to meet the following >day in the village of Yawn on the Thai-Burma border. > >Production doubled > >Since the ruling junta led by Khin took direct power in 1988, opium >production in Burma has doubled. Since 1989, the regime has sought >cease-fire agreements with former insurgent groups, granted them local >autonomy and encouraged -- even participated in -- the drug trade. > >Wei's UWSA is the dominant force in the drug trade in the "Golden >Triangle", centred on Shan state in north-west Burma. > >The Wa are amongst the poorest of Burma's many ethnic minorities, living in >nearly inaccessible mountains on the Burma-China border. Only 10% of Wa >households have access to electricity, and schools, hospitals and roads are >almost non-existent. For many Wa farmers, the pittance paid by drug lords >for their poppy crop is the only possible source of cash. > >The UWSA originated in mass defections from the Communist Party of Burma in >1989, which had controlled large portions of Shan state from the 1970s. The >UWSA immediately sought a cease-fire with the regime, and its leaders >turned to the drug trade. > >By 1996, the UWSA had been able to displace Khun Sa and his Mong Tai Army >as Burma's largest drug traffickers and had seized control of Khun Sa's >former strongholds on the Thai-Burma border. The regime then negotiated a >deal with Khun Sa to allow him to "retire" to Rangoon and launder his >wealth through Burmese state banks. > >Since then, the UWSA has been given a free hand by the regime. In 1995, the >regime recognised the UWSA's control of Mong Yawn, proclaiming it a >"special administrative zone" for the next five years. > >On July 29, the Bangkok Post reported that the regime had extended this >recognition for a further five years. > >Investments > >The regime's interest in the drug trade has been twofold. Drug money has >funded major economic developments in Burma, which have enriched the regime >and enabled it to get around international trade sanctions and >restrictions. > >According to a report by Leslie Kean and Dennis Bernstein in the spring >1998 edition of the US magazine Covert Action Quarterly, Khun Sa has >invested US$250 million in a new highway between Rangoon and Burma's second >largest city, Mandalay, in the north. > >Another drug lord, Lo Xinghan, has also invested millions in a deepwater >port in Rangoon, an express bus line into northern Burma and a US$33 >million tollway from the heart of Burma's poppy-growing region to the China >border, all of which can support expansion of the drug trade. Lo Xinghan is >Khin Nyunt's special adviser for ethnic affairs. > >Much of the funding for Lo's projects has come from private and public >firms in Singapore, firms which have also been involved in arms sales and >infrastructure deals with the regime. For instance, Singapore Technologies, >a publicly owned conglomerate, built a new communications centre for >Burma's regime which allows it to intercept incoming telephone calls, >faxes, e-mails and computer data transmissions. > >The regime's other motive for promoting the drug trade is to split the many >armed ethnic groups and suppress those still committed to struggling >against its rule. > >On July 8, the Bangkok Phuchatkan reported that a Thai intelligence unit >had monitored negotiations between the UWSA and a Burmese army colonel for >joint operations against the insurgent Karen National Union. In exchange >for helping to deny the KNU re-entry to areas captured by the Burmese >military, the UWSA would be allowed to operate buses between Myawaddy, Paan >and Moulmein on the Andaman Sea and to set up amphetamine production >facilities in Myawaddy. > >The negotiations also determined the sharing of amphetamine profits from >the area: the UWSA would receive 40%, the Burmese military would get 30%, >and the remaining 30% would go to the regime-backed Democratic Karen >Buddhist Army, which has fought against the KNU. > >`Cooperation' > >On July 24, the Shan Herald Agency for News (SHAN) reported that the >Burmese government had launched a scorched-earth campaign against the Shan >State Army South led by Yord Serk. The SSA is part of a five-party alliance >including the KNU which has vowed to overthrow the regime. > >According to SHAN, the Burmese Army's north-east command has issued orders >to liquidate any villager or headman suspected of sympathising with the SSA >or who fails to report its movements. The operation is being conducted by >six junta battalions and by elements of Khun Sa's former Mong Tai Army, >which was supposedly disbanded in 1996. > >On August 25, SHAN reported comments by Yord Serk on Thai and United States >efforts to cooperate with Rangoon in an anti-drugs campaign: " That's like >trying to destroy a poison tree by pruning it and not uprooting it. > >"The Was are only the arrow. The bow is Rangoon. You can break the arrow >but not stop the shooting until the bow is under your control. > >"What should be done is to stop the junta from violating the people and >waging a proxy war, through drugs, against Thailand. They should help us >non-Burmans win our right to determine our destiny and the Burmans to win >their democracy." > >All rights reserved, Green Left Weekly. Redistribution permitted with this >notice attached. Redistribution for profit prohibited. > >** NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, material >appearing here is distributed without charge or profit to those who have >expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for research and >educational purposes. ** > >ANTIFA INFO-BULLETIN >News * Analysis * Research * Action >RESISTING FASCISM * BY ALL MEANS NECESSARY! >To subscribe e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Visit AFIB on the World Wide Web: http://burn.ucsd.edu/~aff/afib.html > >++++ stop the execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal ++++ >++++ if you agree copy these 3 sentences in your own sig ++++ >++++ see: http://www.xs4all.nl/~tank/spg-l/sigaction.htm ++++ > > > In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without charge or profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this type of information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. 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