A ten-fold pay rise last year notwithstanding, more and more army men and their families are being forced to look out for themselves and some of them are engaging in poppy cultivation, reports Hawkeye from the border:

Shans coming from Kengtawng sub-township, Mongnai township, Langkher district, Southern Shan State told S.H.A.N. among the officers-turned- poppy growers were two from Kunmong-based Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) 569: one a company commander with the rank of captain and another Sgt Joseph of Lahu descent.

"They used to tax us in the past," said a 56-year old grandmother from the area. "But this year, they tax us and they also grow poppies themselves."

Which was reassuring, according to her 61 year old friend. "We used to worry that they might change their minds all of a sudden and destroy our fields," she said. "But now we know we are in the same boat."

Sources from Hsihseng township, further west, also report seeing soldiers and their family members from LIB 423, 424, 425 an 426 working in their own poppy fields.

Others sources say the military has destroyed some of the fields in the south and east. The hardest hit were in Mongkeung and Laikha, the townships where Shan State Army (SSA) South is active. "The Burma Army is afraid that if the people are well-off, the SSA won't go away," said a 55 year old migrant coming form the area.

Meanwhile, Chiangmai News, 16 January, reported that Thai authorities in Maehongson are expecting a bumper crop of 20 tons of opium from across the border in Homong, former base of Khun Sa, who surrendered in 1996, and the surrounding areas.