Stuff Digital Edition

Military takeover and fighting a boon for opium cultivation

The production of opium in Myanmar has flourished since the military’s seizure of power, with the cultivation of poppies up by a third in the past year as eradication efforts have dropped off and the faltering economy has led more people toward the drug trade, according to a United Nations report released yesterday.

In 2022, in the first full growing season since the military wrested control of the country from the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021, Myanmar saw a 33% increase in cultivation area to 40,100ha, according to the report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime.

‘‘Economic, security and governance disruptions that followed the military takeover of February 2021 have converged, and farmers in remote, often conflict-prone areas in northern Shan and border states have had little option but to move back to opium,’’ said the UN office’s regional representative Jeremy Douglas.

The overall value of the Myanmar opiate economy, based on UN estimates, ranges between US$660 million (NZ$1 billion) and US$2b, depending on how much was sold locally, and how much of the raw opium was processed into heroin or other drugs.

‘‘Virtually all the heroin reported in East and Southeast Asia and Australia originates in Myanmar, and the country remains the secondlargest opium and heroin producer in the world after Afghanistan,’’ Douglas said.

‘‘There is no comparing the two at this point as Afghanistan still produces far more, but the expansion under way in Myanmar should not be dismissed and needs attention as it will likely continue – it is directly tied to the security and economic situation we see unfolding today,’’ he said

The so-called Golden Triangle area, where the borders of Myanmar, Laos and Thailand meet, has historically been a major production area for opium and hosted many of the labs that converted it to heroin.

Decades of political instability have made the frontier regions of Myanmar, also known as Burma, largely lawless, to be exploited by drug producers and traffickers.

Most of the opium exported by Myanmar goes to China and Vietnam, while heroin goes to many countries across the region, Douglas said.

‘‘It is really where the value is for traffickers,’’ he said. ‘‘Very high profits.’’

The cultivation of opium had been falling in recent years before the military took control of the government in 2021.

Production estimates hit a bottom of 400 tonnes in 2020. After rising slightly in 2021, that spiked last year to an estimated 790 tonnes, according to the report.

Since it took control of the government, the military’s use of deadly force to hold on to power has escalated conflict with its civilian opponents to the point that some experts describe the country as now being in a state of civil war.

The costs have been high, with 2810 people killed by government forces to date and 17,427 detained, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.

The violence has meant that the government has been unable to reach some areas to carry out drug eradication raids, and has also had to divert its resources elsewhere. Consequently, eradication efforts appear to have decreased substantially, with 1403ha reported eradicated in 2022 — some 70% fewer than in 2021.

At the same time, as the conflict continues to take its toll on Myanmar’s economy, an increasing number of rural households have been pushed into relying more on opium cultivation for income, the UN said.

‘‘The expansion of opium production that is under way is fundamentally about poverty and people in rural areas reacting to the economic situation,’’ Douglas said. ‘‘It has always been there in tough times.

‘‘At the same time, the security situation is clearly difficult with increasing frequency and intensity of conflict, and those involved in the drug economy have been left largely unchecked.’’

Its synthetic drug economy has also been surging for the same reasons, with reported regional seizures of methamphetamine and other drugs reaching record levels. In a single bust in September in Laos, for example, authorities seized 33 million methamphetamine tablets and 500kg of crystal methamphetamine.

‘‘Virtually all the heroin reported in East and Southeast Asia and Australia originates in Myanmar, and the country remains the second-largest opium and heroin producer in the world after Afghanistan.’’ Jeremy Douglas UN office’s regional representative

World

en-nz

2023-01-28T08:00:00.0000000Z

2023-01-28T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://fairfaxmedia.pressreader.com/article/281848647736724

Stuff Limited