Hardly had the firefight died down in Kokang, another kind of offensive, propaganda war, is being launched by the Burmese junta.Recently, within a week, the Kokang group, headed by Peng Jiasheng, has been  highlighted as drug dealer and producer of explosive, to show the world that the junta is, in fact, against evil warlords and posturing itself as a saviour, anti-drug crusader and defender of its national sovereignty.

According to junta-owned Myanma Ahlin newspaper, police and soldiers raided a compound of seven buildings and found bomb-making equipment  Reports also said troops also found tens of thousands of stimulant tablets, drug-making equipment and hundreds of weapons in the region.

A recent report from Shan Herald Agency for News (SHAN) writes: “Overnight, Peng, who had been enjoying the status of “one of the national race leaders,” has become a drug runner after his rejection of Naypyitaw’s proposal to change his armed group a Burma Army-controlled border security force, leading the path to be followed by other ethnic leaders who, like himself, are continuing their rejection of the proposal.”

Members of the Peace and Democracy Front -  Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), also known as the Chinese Kokang ,  United Wa State Army (UWSA), and Mongla aka National Democratic Alliance Army-Eastern Shan State (NDAA) – are against the overture of Burmese junta’s proposal of coming under Burma army, within the framework of  border security guard force.

While it is fair to conclude that all those who have guns in Shan  State, that is all cease-fire armies, resistance groups and Burma army, are in one way or the other, involved in drugs,  the Burma army’s occupation of Kokang has nothing to do with anti-narcotics undertaking, but trying to scare the others by pounding the weakest link within the cease-fire groups.

In an interview with Khuensai Jaiyen, Director of  SHAN,  by Maxmilian Wechsler in Bangkok Post, Sunday, 24 May 2009, a question was posed, whether any cease-fire or non-cease-fire groups are now involved in the drug trade in Shan State or other parts of Burma. Quoting and paraphrasing what a Palaung leader said a few years ago, he replied: “Everyone who has a gun is involved.” Those who have more guns are more involved. In Burma, who has the most guns?

The crucial fact that opium and armed struggle in Shan State are so intertwined could be detected in what General Tuan Shi-wen had said in 1967.

In an interview with a British journalist General Tuan  said  : “ Necessity knows no law. That is why we deal with opium. We have to continue to fight the evil of communism, and to fight you must have an army, and an army must have guns, and to buy guns you must have money. In these mountains, the only money is opium.”

Since then, the drug trade has diversified and expanded to include Amphetamine- type stimulants (ATS), which are much easier to produce.

While opium and ATS trafficking might be seen as a “necessary evil” to finance the resistance and struggle to regain ethnic rights of self-determination, no doubt, in process some of the rebel armies leadership’s priority setting might have become blurred and  started to embrace “wealth accumulation” increasingly,  deviating from their original goal.

Either way, it is fair to acknowledge the fact that the struggle for rights of self-determination is very real and alive within the non-Burman ethnic population, even if some of their military leaders might have swayed from their  original commitment and become corrupted.

Another point to ponder on the Burmese junta’s stance on drug issue is that it is not an anti-drug crusader, as it likes to portray itself,  but  has always been a player and  part of the illicit trade in Shan State.

SHAN Drug Watch News Letter,  of June 2009, writes:

Burma’s military – the Tatmadaw – is complicit in the drug trade. The Tatmadaw might account for more than 40 per cent of GOB’s budget but this is mostly spent on weapons systems and the lavish lifestyle of officers.

Soldier pay remains hazardously low, and so many are forced to find other ways to supplement their income. They are also required to contribute to the welfare fund of the unit to which they belong.

Reasons for military involvement have been confirmed by Bouan  (Xavier Bouan, from UNODC) , who said: “Everybody is involved in this trade in one way or another. Insurgents, militia, government, cease-fire groups; for all of them… it’s one of the only ways to survive and get cash.”

Testimony in 2003 had incriminated at least 93 of the 128 Infantry Battalions and Light Infantry Battalions operating in Shan State in facilitating the drug trade.

Their involvement includes providing loans and seeds to villagers to grow opium; allowing or ordering farmers to grow opium; taxing the poppy harvest; transporting opium powder to heroin refineries; accepting bribes to allow dealers through government checkpoints; providing security for refineries; transporting methamphetamine pills to Thai dealers at the Thai-Burma border; and allowing Army personnel to sell methamphetamine to supplement their income.

The case in point here is that the Burmese junta’s real interest is to rein in all the  ethnic resistance forces and take control of their areas, by hook or by crook. It is in no way an anti-drugs crusader, but more of an accomplice or abettor and have, in fact, cashed in for decades. The sudden change of posture is more to do with tactical move to gain the upper hand in its propaganda war on one hand and to subdue the ethnic resistance force with international sympathy and backing, probably under the pretext of “War on Drugs”.

Finally, what is wrong with the Kokang army having an explosives factory within its territory to prepare for self-defence, when the Burmese junta is building huge underground complexes and even trying to materialise its ambition of acquiring nuclear weapons, with the help of North Korea and possibly, also Russia?

Propaganda churning out of  junta’s mouthpiece,  Myanma Ahlin newspaper should be taken with a pint of salt.

#End…..

_{(Sai Wansai is the General Secretary of the exiled Shan Democratic Union – Editor)}