License to raise poppies

License to raise poppies

Drugs

According to sources coming to the border on 30 September, local people in Mongton township, Monghsat district, opposite Chiangmai, had already been commissioned to grow poppies. 

According to them, Captain Maung Maung Nyo, Commander, Company 4, of Mongton-based Infantry Battalion 277, visited Hpakhay village, south of the township seat, on 13 August. He explained to the 20-village elders and well-to-do residents that "all had been hurt" by the closure of the BP-1 checkpoint between Mongton and Chiangmai's Chiangdao district. 

"You raised garlic and onions but, unlike previous years, you can no longer transport them into Thailand," he was quoted as saying. 

He then set out to propose a poppy cooperation scheme: 

• Villagers would be allowed to grow poppies west of the Mongton-BP1 road "away from the public thoroughfare" 

• Those who were short of capital would be given a 15,000 kyat loan per family, subject to endorsement by 3 people 

• A special location would be chosen where poppies were to be "grown for destruction" when the annual poppy thrashing period arrived 

• The produce at harvest time would be sold only to "my friend". 

Source said most of the poppy fields of Hpakhae tract are located due west, in the Loinawk mountain. 

Speed as principal in Mongpiang
In Mongpulong of Mongpiang, a township north of Mongton, Captain Zaw Nyein, company 2 of Mongpiang-based Infantry Battalion 43 held a meeting with 30 leading villagers on 2 July, said sources. he was accompanied by Hpo Lu, the local Lahu militia leader. 

The Burmese officer was said to have urged his audience to raise poppies so the poor could earned some income. 

Hpolu added that he would loan 100 pills of methamphetamine per household to pay for their running costs. Each household, in return, would be required to repay with 1zit (0.4 kg) of opium. "When some villagers raised objections to the offer, he replied it was compulsory", said a local source. 

As for the military, the villagers agreed to pay another zit of opium per acre as tax. The tax would be paid through the militia leader. 

The rest of Mongpiang, sources claimed, are also full of poppy fields. 

Mongyawn resumes poppy culture
Mongyawn in Monghsat township, opposite Chiangmai's Fang and Mae Ai districts has again become a place where poppy fields can be found after a one-year respite, said hired farmhands who visited Mae Ai recently. 

In 2001, Wei Hsuehkang had reported to have banned it, after Mongyawn was slated to become a tourist sensation. However, Thai border closure plus neglect had left thousands of Wa resettlers coming from the Chinese border no choice but to re-engage in their traditional way of livelihood, according to the sources. 

According to The New Light of Myanmar, 30 January 2003, Monghsat and Mongpiang townships were already free of poppy cultivation, and poppy plantations in Mongton had been destroyed last year.