National reconciliation key to resolution

No.03 - 9/2007
16 September 2007
Drugs
 
National reconciliation key to resolution
 
Without peace and national reconciliation, there is no way of eradicating opium in Burma, concluded a forum participated by the UN drug agency, activists and journalists at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand (FCCT) that was held last Wednesday, 12 September.
 
The outcome of the meeting was in contrast to the declaration by Burma's Central Committee for Drug Abuse Control (CCDAC) last June that the military-ruled country would be drug free before 2015. According to UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) figures, the annual opium yield estimate was 1,676 tons and 315 tons for 2006, an 80% drop.
 
However, Xavier Bouan, Regional Illicit Crop Monitoring Expert for the UNODC, commented on the sidelines that earlier UN figures were based on US annual survey results. "We started to do our own survey only after 2000," he said. "Naturally, we made a few mistakes at first. But over the years, you may have noticed that we have become quite proficient."
 
Larry Jagan, who regularly reports on Burma, said he was "impressed" with UNODC's Illicit Crop Monitoring Programme( ICMP).
 
Khuensai Jaiyen, Director of Shan Herald Agency for News (SHAN), who delivered a presentation at the meeting, said: "We believe that the official figures of ten or more years ago were overestimated. Leading dealers within the trade 20 years ago told us that UN figures for opium production at that time were several times the real figures. If that is the case, then perhaps all that has happened is that in recent years figures have become more realistic, and there has been no real drop at all except in Kokang and Wa."
 
Others on the panel were former senator Kraisak Choonhawan, Human Rights Watch's David Mathieson and UNODC regional chief Akira Fujino.
 
The UNODC has relied heavily on satellite images for inaccessible areas. "Most of our findings converges with those of S.H.A.N.," Bouan affirmed.
 
Critics however say the UN reports rarely touch on drug-related issues such as human rights violations, extrajudicial killings and junta officials' involvement in the drug trade.
 
S.H.A.N. has already published several in-depth reports on the drug situation in Burma, particularly in Shan State, notably Show Business (2003), Finding Neverland: The story of Yawngkha (2005), Hand in Glove (2006) and Wa sacrifice at what price (2007).