Myanmar rebel group offers to 'eradicate' drugs

Bangkokpost, 19 May 2012 ... 

 

Ethnic rebels engaged in peace talks with Myanmar's government proposed on Saturday to wipe out drugs in Shan State -- where much of the country's opium and amphetamines are produced.

Shan State Army soldiers parade during an officers' graduation ceremony at Doi Taileang in Myanmar the in 2006. Ethnic rebels engaged in peace talks with Myanmar's government proposed on Saturday to wipe out drugs in Shan State -- where much of the country's opium and amphetamines are produced.

Speaking ahead of a new round of discussions, Ywet Sit, chairman of the Restoration Council of Shan State -- the rebels' political wing -- said they had submitted a "drug-eradication plan" to negotiators.

The group was "ready to discuss the drug topic with the government", he added, before entering a closed-door session with senior government peace envoys at a military compound in Kengtung, a town in Shan State.

The multiple ethnic rebel organisations in Myanmar generally use profits from narcotics, among other resources such as teak and jade, to fund their operations, analysts say.

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) last year labelled Mynamar a "major source of methamphetamine pills and opiates in Southeast Asia", adding that most are "manufactured in Shan State".

General Soe Win, Myanmar's deputy commander-in-chief of the army and leading the government delegation at Saturday's talks, said he was hopeful of a "beneficial agreement" between the parties.

The Shan State Army South, the military wing of the resistance, was also present at the discussions. It agreed to a ceasefire with the government in December in response to peace overtures from reformist president Thein Sein.

It had been one of the biggest rebel groups fighting Myanmar's army, mostly from guerrilla outposts bordering Thailand. The movement's exact demands are not clear, but they have been fighting for greater autonomy for decades.

The mainly Buddhist Shan are the country's second-biggest ethnic group, accounting for about nine percent of the population, and Shan State covers a vast area of northeastern Myanmar.

The country, which is slowly emerging from outright military rule, is the world's second-largest opium poppy
grower in the world after Afghanistan and is also a source for methamphetamines.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/asia/294149/myanmar-rebels-vow-to-eradicate-drugs