Tribal rebels in
Burma are becoming more active, and this is largely because they have
resumed producing heroin (along with methamphetamines, otherwise known
as “speed” or “meth”). As a result of the 2010 elections (and fears that
this would mean more attacks in the tribal north), six tribal armies
from among the Karen, Chin, Kachin, Mon and Shan people in the north
formed a defensive union. The tribes believe they would be attacked once
the voting was over, and they were sort of correct. The tribesmen
believed that the new "democracy" was a sham, and just the same old
military dictatorship in new clothes. That’s not entirely true, but the
tribes never really trusted the southerners. The tribes need cash, lots
of it, to revive their rebellion and heroin has long been the solution
to that problem.
In fact, the tribes in this area have been cultivating poppies
and producing opium for centuries. But this was a luxury item, mostly
for dealing with pain. But in the 18th century a growing number of
affluent Chinese began using opium for pleasure (“chasing the dragon”)
and the Chinese government banned opium and made war on the tribes to
try and cut off the supply. The tribes scaled back production, but after
World War II noted a growing interest in opium and heroin in the West.
So the “fruit of the poppy” continues to survive in northern Burma.
In Burma the new anti-government tribal alliance has become a
real threat to the Burmese government by attacking the heroin operations
of pro-government tribes. The growing (or returning) heroin trade was
also a source of income for the old corrupt military government (who
heavily taxed tribes it allowed to produce opium). The new government is
unhappy with these revenue losses. To make matters worse, some of the
heroin gangs are now paying the tribal rebels, instead of the
government, for protection. Meanwhile, the government destroys poppy
fields belonging to hostile tribes.
Currently most heroin is produced in Afghanistan. It wasn’t
always that way. After a major military campaign against heroin
producing tribes Burmese opium and heroin production declined nearly 90
percent in the decade after 1996, but has been making a comeback the
last few years. The government has encouraged some tribes to switch
sides, and oppose the rebel tribes, by giving them permission to grow
poppies (which produces opium and, with a chemical transformation,
heroin). In the last three years, Burmese heroin went from five percent
of the world's supply, to nearly 20 percent. That’s big money and even
the farmers who grow the poppies do very well, earning seven times more
(about $3,500 a year) growing poppies instead of legal crops. Even after
paying 10-20 percent of that for protection (bribes or a fee to the
local rebels) poppies are far more profitable than food.
The government has sent troops to cope with, or defeat, all
these new tribal insurrections. The army always had the advantage in
that they can hurt the tribes (by attacking villages, crops and
families), while the tribal rebels have never been able to get an
equivalent terror campaign going in the more densely populated (and
heavily policed) south. But the army operations are expensive. The fuel,
ammo and additional supplies of all kinds are costly. Then there is the
medical care for soldiers who are killed or injured (or become sick).
Operating in that rough country is dangerous, and expensive.
Decades of fighting have created much misery for those who
live up north. Frequent use of landmines by the rebels has kept about
half a million tribal people from using their ancestral lands. Those
mines won’t be cleared until there is a permanent (or at least
long-term) peace deal. Many tribes have found the drug money more
attractive than being able to farm and hunt in peace, and that’s become a
hard habit to break. All that drug income allows the tribes to buy more
weapons and political allies. If the heroin trade in Afghanistan is
badly hurt, the tribes of northern Burma are ready to take up the slack.
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