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Fewer refineries but no less output
Poll says people rejected the draft charter
Restrictions Tightened on Insein Political Prisoners
Alarming rise in poppy cultivation and opium use in Kachin
Cyclone takes toll on building boom in Myanmar capital
Myanmar politics roiled, but junta grip firm
Myanmar tightens security, puts public on alert after blast
KNU Statement on recent media accusations regarding foreign individuals

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Fewer refineries but no less output
Shanland
28 June 2008

Compared to 2003 when SHAN’s Drug Watch published Show Business: Rangoon’s War on Drugs in Shan State, there appear to be fewer heroin or methamphetamine factories along the Thai-Burma border.

The attached map on P.44 showed 93 refineries across Shan State, 59 heroin and 34 meth.

Thailand, at the two-day drug meeting with Burmese officials in Chiangmai in December 2002, had put the figure at 55 on the Burmese side of the border alone. Show Business was able to verify 39 (29 heroin and 10 methamphetamine) at that time.

However, following “total” war on drugs that was launched on 1 February 2003, several along the border were closed in anticipation of possible crossborder raids by the Thai Army. As a result, some of them reportedly moved to the Lao-Burma border and across the border into Laos.

Two years later came the Wa’s opium-free declaration. Barely 3 months afterwards, a 496kg of heroin shipment escorted by Ta Ai Pan, said to be the nephew of Wa supremo Bao Youxiang, was seized following a tip by Chinese officials.

According to Wa sources, the events marked the beginning of a new reorganization of the drug industry.

Whereas in the past, each individual unit of the United Wa State Army was allowed to set up its own factory and trade management, everything now rests with Panghsang, the Wa capital on the Sino-Burma border, especially after Wei Xuegang (Wei Hsuehkang), a drug fugitive wanted both in Thailand and the United States, took over its “Finance Ministry” on 4 July 2006.

“As a result, Thai buyers now have to deal directly with Panghsang where effective monopoly has been established, or they get no deal,” said a Shan businessman close to the Wa last year.

One other result was the reduction in the number of refineries inside Shan State. At the time of this reporting, only 37 refineries (13 heroin in and 24 meth), 11 of which (6 heroin and 5 meth) are located on the Thai-Burma border, are being confirmed by SHAN sources.

The quality however is guaranteed and the quantity “is up to what the order is,” according to the businessman based in Kengtung, “which should be a minimum of 500,000 pills in the case of yaba (methamphetamine).”

The same pattern appears to be taking place with other known groups like the Kachin Defense Army (KDA) and Panhsay militia.

In the meantime, a number of small factories have sprung up especially in southern Shan State to produce huangpi (yellow powder). “About 7-10kg of opium, depending on its quality, can be easily cooked to make huangpi,” said a former chemist. “It is less bulky and easier to transport by truck to any destination especially to northern Shan State from where it could be refined into white powder and smuggled across the border into China.”

According to Opium Fields (1991), huangpi only needs to be dissolved in alcohol and added ether and hydrochloric acid to become white. “It is the final stage of the process that requires the skill of the chemist. Ether is extremely volatile, and if mishandled, may ignite causing a powerful explosion,” it warns.

According to Antonio Maria Costa, head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC), there was an alarming increase in opium production both in Afghanistan and Burma last year. “It could be said that there is government involvement in allowing the opium trade through its border,” he was quoted by Irrawaddy, 27 June, as saying.

http://shanland.org/drugs/2008/fewer-refineries-but-no-less-output

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Poll says people rejected the draft charter
No.01-7/2008
2 July 2008
Politics
  
According to a month-long exit poll conducted by SHAN, almost 63% of eligible voters had cast No against the draft constitution drawn by the military.

Only 10 of the 1,186 respondents said they had voted in favor of the draft “on our own free will.”

Just 67% of the respondents said they were able to cast ballots. 9.6% had waived their right to vote. 20.7% said they were forced to make ticks (checkmarks) , which denote approval of the draft, at advance polls organized by the authorities. 5.4% went to the polls only to find that the polling stations had closed well ahead of 16:00, the official closing time. “The official figure that there was a 99% turnout was therefore downright impossible,” said a survey member at the evaluation meeting.

However, contrary to what is general believed, junta authorities had in many cases (63.5%) allowed the voters to cast their ballots freely, out of whom 62.7% had voted No. “Which means that even after officials had ticked in favor for those who failed to turn up and those that did not arrive in time as well as advance pollings, the support for the draft could not have been more than 37.3% and not 92% as claimed by junta media,” said another member at the evaluation meeting.

67.7% (803) of the respondents were from Shan State. The rest of them were from Kachin and Mon states and Rangoon, Mandalay, Sagaing and Pegu divisions.

“It was great fun doing it,” said Khuensai Jaiyen, SHAN editor in chief. “My only regret was that other BNI (Burma News International) members were not able to join the survey. Together we could have done a better job with a better impact.”

The BNI formed in 2002 has 10 member news groups: Independent Mon News Agency (IMNA), Kachin News Group (KNG), Kaladan News, Kantarawaddy Times, Kaowao News, Khonumthung News, Mizzima News, Narinjara News, Network Media Group (NMG) and Shan Herald for News (SHAN).

Burma’s military rulers held a series of referendum for their draft constitution in April and May. The junta announced on 29 May that the charter has been ratified. The statement was signed by Senior General Than Shwe. 2010 has been set as the year for general elections where opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been barred from becoming a candidate.

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Restrictions Tightened on Insein Political Prisoners
By WAI MOE
Tuesday, July 1, 2008

An exercise ban has been imposed on political prisoners in Rangoon’s Insein prison, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners-Burma (AAPP). The regular supplies of books from family members and friends have also been stopped by the authorities, the Thailand-based organization said.

AAPP’s joint secretary, Bo Kyi, drew attention to health problems suffered by Burma’s longest serving political prisoner, the 79-year-old journalist Win Tin, and a prominent leader of the 88 Students Generation, Min Ko Naing.

Min Ko Naing, a close associate of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, was arrested on August 21 2007 after leading a protest march against rising fuel prices. He has a serious eye ailment and is reported to be suffering now from other health problems.

Burma’s main opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), has called in a statement for the release of NLD members arrested for praying for Aung San Suu Kyi on her 63th birthday on June 19. The arrests were illegal, the NLD statement said.

The NLD members were attacked by pro-government thugs belonging to the paramilitary Swan Ah Shin and the Union Solidarity and Development Association while they were taking part in a prayer ceremony for Suu Kyi. Police looked on as the thugs beat the participants, the NLD statement said.

NLD sources say about five people, including two party members, Theingi and Ma Cho, were also arrested on June 24 for their involvement in Nargis relief works.

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Alarming rise in poppy cultivation and opium use in Kachin
Feature - Kachin News Group
Written by Shyamal Sarkar
Tuesday, 01 July 2008

Cultivation of poppy and the consumption of opium has become the bane of Kachin State in northern Burma. Demand for opium far outstrips production and both have registered an alarming rise.

The increasing demand for drugs among gold and jade mine workers and timber loggers have led to more and more farmers traditionally into rice cultivation to switch to growing poppy in Hukawng (Hugawng) Valley Kachin State.

Hukawng Valley, now accounts for over 100,000 acres of poppy. The proliferation of poppy cultivation is helped along, with cultivators bribing both regional Burmese military junta authorities the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) and the New Democratic Army-Kachin (NDA-K).

The valley is the largest opium producer in Kachin State. Demand in the state ensures that the produce is consumed by the local people so there are no despatches outside the state.

Consumption of opium though spread out in Kachin state is high among gold and jade mine workers in the valley. Opium also finds its way to Myitkyina Township the capital of Kachin State and Laiza, the headquarters and business centre of the KIO on the Sino-Burma border.  Given the high demand for opium, farmers find it profitable to switch from traditional paddy to poppy.  

The profit equation makes it lucrative for farmers to make the switch in cultivation. For instance an acre of paddy field yields 50 Tins (1 Tin = 40.9 litres in Burmese measurement in volume) of paddy and the price for 50 tins of rice is 250,000 Kyat whereas an acre of poppy field yields at least 3 to 4 Viss (1 Viss = 1.6 Kilograms in Burmese measurement in weight) and the current price for a Viss of opium is 1,000,000 Kyat (est. US $ 889) to 3,000,000 Kyat (est. US $ 2,667).

For farmers it makes good economic sense given that there are no restrictions imposed by the government and bribing sees them through.

The same equation applies in Sadung (Sadon) areas in eastern Kachin state bordering China's Yunnan province where poppy is second largest cultivated crop. Here again farmers making the switch, need to keep the Burmese ruling junta, KIO and New Democratic Army-Kachin (NDA-K) happy because the area is administrated by them. Cultivation here has increased with the use of chemical fertilizers from China. Most poppy fields are owned by Chinese businessmen. Here again regional military authorities, the KIO and the NDA-K are bribed by the Chinese poppy cultivators for permission. They grow 7 Viss to 15 Viss of opium per acre annually and is converted into heroin and methamphetamine tablets and despatched to China. Areas in Phakant and Putao are also gradually coming under poppy cultivation.

Production of opium is directly linked to the demand, for drug addiction is at an all time high in the state. Drug trade flourishes in the gold and jade mine areas with the active encouragement of mine owners both in its sale and consumption. To ensure loyalty employers not only encourage use of drugs but are even known to give as much as 1,000 Kyat a day to the miners to buy drugs. The more they consume the more they want.

Drug dealers send drugs into the mining areas using women as carriers. Drugs are packed inside condoms and sent from Myitkyina to Danai. The women cross the check points with the condoms inside the vagina.

Poppy cultivation has been gradually increasing since 1994 when the KIO signed a ceasefire agreement with the junta. With mining in jade, gold and logging controlled by companies, common people do not benefit. The beneficiaries are the companies, the junta and the ceasefire groups. This has contributed to the many farmers opting for poppy cultivation. With the economy of the country on a downhill mode, survival for the common man makes him turn to illegal earnings. With demand outstripping production poppy fields are mushrooming wherever possible in the state.

Officially, however, the KIO stopped its opium business in 1991 KIO but it continues to benefit directly or indirectly from opium. Chinese drug lords pump in money to the ceasefire groups. The last time the KIO burnt drugs publicly was in 2005.

There has been little awareness to check the alarming increase in drug use and production.  For the first time on 'World Drug Day' this month, an anti-drug poster movement was in evidence in key places in Myitkyina Township, by Myitkyina University students under the aegis of the All Kachin Students Union (AKSU). About 200 A-4 size posters, with 'No Drugs' written in both Burmese and English were pasted in Myitkyina downtown. The idea was to create awareness given that a large number of high school and university students are also into drugs. Ironically junta officials tore the posters.

The AKSU has alleged that government personnel like army officials, soldiers, military affairs security unit (military intelligence or Sa-Ya-Pha), police, narcotic police, legal experts, lawyers, judges, doctors and jailers depend directly or indirectly on illegal income from drug trade because of the abysmally low salaries given  by the junta.

According to the United Nations on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report in 2007, Burma's poppy cultivation dropped 34 per cent, to an estimated 21,500 hectares from 32,800 hectares in 2005. The areas where poppy cultivation has been on the decline were supposedly in Kachin State and North Shan and Wa areas. The truth is exactly the opposite.

(The author is a veteran journalist from India and has been in major newspapers as a Reporter, Deputy Chief of Bureau, News Coordinator, Op-ed and Edit writer.)

http://bnionline.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4388&Itemid=0

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Cyclone takes toll on building boom in Myanmar capital
AFP
by Hla Hla Htay / Tue Jul 1, 11:33 PM ET

Two months after deadly Cyclone Nargis struck Myanmar, the military regime's new capital is suffering the economic ripple effects, as construction crews leave to rebuild devastated towns.

The cyclone ripped across the Irrawaddy Delta, 270 miles (435 kilometres) south of the capital Naypyidaw, wiping away entire villages and seriously damaging important trading towns, including Myanmar's main city Yangon.

More than 138,000 people are dead or missing, while homes, roads, bridges and schools have been destroyed.

Before the storm, Naypyidaw was filled with construction crews as the military embarked on ambitious building projects for their new capital, which they call "the abode of kings."

Now, many of the workers have left to take new jobs in the Irrawaddy -- a swampy region a world away from the scrubby highlands where they had been working.

"The construction workers from Naypyidaw sites will work at tower foundations for electricity projects, as the Irrawaddy Delta needs electricity first," said Moe Moe, a 32-year-old manager for a construction firm based in Yangon.

"Later, the workers will also work on renovating schools and building projects," she told AFP. "Meanwhile, some construction is also continuing in Naypyidaw."

Naypyidaw was built in secret, known only through rumours until the military regime abruptly ordered the government to move here at the crack of dawn on November 7, 2005, a moment deemed auspicious by the generals' top astrologers.

At the time, construction crews were everywhere. The city had no schools, no clinics, few phone lines -- not even a grocery store.

In the years since, neatly organised hotels, apartment blocks, and government offices have sprung up.

A new six-lane highway to link the country's main cities of Yangon and Mandalay is more than half finished. It will slash the travelling time to Naypyidaw, which lies roughly between the two.

Electricity here runs 24 hours a day -- an unthinkable luxury elsewhere in Myanmar -- and the generals have even opened a sprawling new zoo, although tourists are not allowed to visit the city.

Construction workers have been the backbone of the rapidly evolving city. Now that many of them are in the delta, residents say business is sagging and the remaining building sites sit idle.

"My sales have dropped about 50 percent because so many construction sites here moved to the delta after Cyclone Nargis. Many construction workers have moved there too, following their company's jobs," Maung Maung, 24, a shopkeeper in Naypyidaw's Myoma market told AFP.

"I feel sorry for those who lost everything. But we are also dealing with the consequences," he said.

A hotel manager said many businessmen had also left the capital for the delta, where the government is encouraging them to make donations to cyclone-hit communities.

"Many construction sites moved there, and also many businessmen went to the delta to help people with donations," he said.

"People here felt very sorry about the storm. Some also lost their relatives in the delta," he added.

One government official told AFP on condition of anonymity that the regime expects the rebuilding to take at least two years.

"The leadership is trying to budget money for rehabilitation projects in the delta. We will have to work at least two years for the delta to get back to a normal, pre-Nargis situation," the official said.

Poor villagers are still arriving in Naypyidaw in hopes of finding work, but some say they have been discouraged that so many jobs have moved south.

"I came here 20 days ago with my three children to find a job. I have to work from dawn to evening. It's very difficult to find a job in my village," said 53-year-old Khin Win.

She and two of her children each earn 1,500 kyats (1.30 dollars) a day clearing duckweed from an artificial pond created along a Naypyidaw road. She had hoped to find better-paid work.

"I have decided to stay here at least three months. We will try to find a better job here to get more money. Otherwise, we will go back to my village. New jobs are also difficult to find here," she said.

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Myanmar politics roiled, but junta grip firm
AP
By DENIS D. GRAY, Associated Press Writer1 hour, 18 minutes ago

The cyclone that devastated Myanmar's heartland has also roiled a political landscape dominated by the military for more than four decades.

Buddhist monks are regrouping after the battering they took nine months ago, civil society groups are emerging and foreign aid workers — often agents of political change in the wake of humanitarian crises — are present in unprecedented numbers.

The junta's grip on power remains absolute. But anger against the regime has probably never run so high.

"Perhaps incremental change will emerge from engagement on humanitarian problems," said Joel Charny, vice president of U.S.-based Refugees International who visited Myanmar just before the cyclone struck.

People were already incensed by the brutal suppression last September of anti-government demonstrators, including the country's revered, saffron-robed Buddhist monks.

Then came Cyclone Nargis, exposing the junta as inept and heartless, initially blocking international aid efforts and even now still hampering them.

"The people are blaming the government. They are responsible for many deaths. They don't care about right or wrong and they let people die just to hold onto power," said Aung Myoe, a 32-year-old driver in a comment typical of the mood in Yangon, Myanmar's largest city.

"In the `Saffron Revolution' they lost their Buddhist legitimacy; with the cyclone they lost whatever concept of efficacy they had with the public," said David Steinberg, a Myanmar expert at Georgetown.

Steinberg said the junta constantly trumpet achievements in modernizing the isolated and impoverished Southeast Asian nation formerly named Burma.

Analysts say these passions and emerging trends may in the longer term loosen the junta's grip on power. But for now it's business as usual: dissidents are arrested, a brutal campaign against ethnic minorities rages on and the military strides toward elections guaranteed to perpetuate its control.

But the 500,000-strong Buddhist monkhood, the only viable national institution after the army, is regaining strength and cohesion by assuming a leading role in helping cyclone survivors.

Their work is seconded by quietly burgeoning civil society groups, which Steinberg said could foster pluralism and democracy in the future. These groups include professional guilds, including those of actors and singers, charity organizations and loose associations of like-minded citizens.

So could the influx of foreign aid workers and agencies in what may be the most intense interaction Myanmar has experienced with the outside world since gaining independence from Great Britain in 1948.

The operative word is "incremental." Analysts don't foresee meaningful political changes in the short run, discounting a dramatic turn of events, such as social upheaval in face of cyclone-induced rice shortages, or a split within the military.

The regime will be hard-pressed to provide enough rice to keep its 400,000 troops and their families loyal and ensure that shortages, which could last several years, don't trigger major popular unrest as they have in the past, said Donald Seekins, a Myanmar watcher at Japan's Meio University.

Meanwhile, the junta marches forward along its so-called "road map to democracy." Elections are scheduled in 2010, based on a referendum-approved Constitution which guarantees the military 25 percent of parliamentary seats and power to run the country in event of a national emergency.

The cyclone response, the referendum and the extension of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's detention for a sixth year all sparked international outcry, but the absence of U.N. or other foreign action reassured the junta it needn't fear outside intervention.

"The people of Myanmar would have been happy if the United States or France invaded," said Ye Htun, a 30-year-old English teacher. "In Myanmar, the government is too strong and people are too scared. We can't do it alone."

Denis Gray, AP bureau chief in Bangkok, has covered Myanmar since the mid-1970s.

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Myanmar tightens security, puts public on alert after blast
AFP
34 minutes ago

Myanmar's military regime Wednesday tightened security in Yangon and urged the public to remain alert for "saboteurs," after a small bomb damaged the offices of a pro-junta group.

The blast caused no injuries when it exploded inside a local government compound around dawn on Tuesday in a township on the northern outskirts of Yangon.

But it blew a hole in the brick wall of the office belonging to the pro-junta Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA), damaging some office equipment, the official New Light of Myanmar newspaper said.

After the blast, police increased their patrols during the night, with heavy trucks rumbling through the streets of Myanmar's main city, witnesses said.

State media Wednesday also warned the public to remain on alert and to report any suspected attackers.

"The authorities have already reminded the people to pay special attention to the saboteurs who will be active assuming various forms in public places and to expose them by reporting to officials," the newspaper said.

The USDA is a pro-junta organisation blamed by Aung San Suu Kyi's supporters for a series of attacks, including a deadly raid on her convoy five years ago that marked the beginning of her latest period of house arrest.

The Nobel peace laureate has spent most of the last 18 years confined to her home in Yangon.

Her National League for Democracy (NLD) party on Monday also accused the group of attacking her supporters on June 19 as they gathered to mark her 63rd birthday.

Fourteen people were arrested after USDA members and a militia beat the activists outside the party's headquarters, NLD said in a statement.

The blast follows two others in April in downtown Yangon, the country's economic hub, which damaged cars but caused no injuries.

The junta blamed those blasts on an armed exiled student group, Vigorous Burma Student Warriors, who oppose military rule.

Other bombs and shootings since December have been blamed on ethnic rebels.

The Tuesday bomb was the first such incident since Cyclone Nargis hit two months ago, leaving more than 138,000 people dead or missing.

Myanmar has been under military rule since 1962.

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KNU Statement on recent media accusations regarding foreign individuals

It has been brought to the attention of the Karen National Union that a number of U.S. based individuals have made claims to be militarily supporting and training the Karen National Liberation Army and as such have been openly discussing their support with a number of media outlets.

The Karen National Union would like to clarify that it does not in any way endorse, encourage, or seek the support of these individuals or their claims of representation. In making such erroneous claims they have tarnished the reputation both of the Karen National Union and The Karen National Liberation Army and we feel it our responsibility to request that they desist from such actions in the future.

While the Karen National Union welcomes all those who seek to support our struggle in striving towards founding a genuine federal union comprised of all the states of the nationalities in Burma. We feel some individuals have incorrectly portrayed out actions as an attempt to form a separate republic and in doing so have also suggested that the Karen National Union and the Karen National Liberation Army are pursuing separate goals.

We would like to confirm that the Karen National Union and the Karen National Liberation Army are united and steadfast in our endeavours. We have never sought nor needed the support of foreign individuals or countries and we repudiate the suggestions by some that we have. The struggle of the Karen is a just one and we are more than capable to continuing it without such aid.

Central Executive Committee
Karen National Union
Date: June 28, 2008.

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