Govt militias say poppies can be grown until 2019

The government may be launching poppy destruction campaigns to please the foreign governments, but the real fact is that farmers have also been told they are free to grow opium poppies until 2019, according to sources visiting the border.

“The situation is in places like Panhsay (in Namkham township) and Ta Moeng Ngen (Kutkhai township), people were growing them not only in their backyards but even in their frontyards, which they had not done before,” reported a source close to the PMFs.

Lt-Gen Ko Ko (Photo: Xinhua)

Home minister Lt-Gen Ko Ko, who is also head of the Central Committee for Drug Abuse Control (CCDAC), announced on 5 October 2012 that the 15 year (1999-2014) master plan to eliminate drugs had been extended to 2019 “in order to keep the momentum.”

Naypyitaw, in November, launched a poppy destruction drive codenamed “Hsin Shweli”, where they claimed to have devastated 12,774 hectares of poppy plantations, according to official media on 26 January.

Sources however have scoffed the figures as a gross exaggeration. “In several areas, government poppy destroyers were not allowed to enter them, let alone destroy them,” one of the source painted out.

Another source agreed, saying it was the case in Phawng Hseng, under the control of militia leader T. Hkun Myat, and Ta Moeng Ngen, under the control of its militia leader U Myint Lwin aka Wang Guoda. Both also are elected MPs. As a result, government raiders were forced to turn back.

“The exception is Panhsay,” said a source from Namkham. “U Kyaw Myint (Panhsay PMF chief and MP) had allowed the raiders to enter. But all the plantations were found to be harvested.”

At the same time, U Kyaw Myint’s Panhsay PMF had been accused of detaining and beating up two poppy field surveyors: Nai Tun Maung and U Ant Kyaw during their visit to Mong Wi, another village tract in Nam Kham under his control. Both are said to be civil servants at the Nam Kham Township General Administration.

Other townships in northern Shan State that SHAN has received reports are Mongmit, Namhsan, Mantong, Namtu, Hsenwi, Lashio and Tangyan. “Except for areas alongside the oil-gas pipeline, where security has been tightened, poppy plantations were not bothered by the authorities,” said a source. “As for the said area, farmers were afraid to enter it to work on their plantations.”

49 out of 35 townships in Shan State grew opium poppies, according to SHAN’s Shan Drug Watch annual report in 2012.