There has been an alarming resurgence in the cultivation of opium in Myanmar (Burma), a UN report said Wednesday.
This could undermine progress towards a drug-free South East Asia, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) warned in the Opium Puppy Cultivation In South East Asia report.
VENDING I UDVIKLINGEN
Laos haS cut opium production by 94 percent in less than a decade, Thailand has been opium-free for almost 20 years and Myanmar’s share of the world opium market collapsed from 63 percent to six percent between 1998 and 2006.
However, this significant downward trend risks being undercut by an alarming upsurge in opium cultivation in Myanmar this year, said UNODC chief Antonio Maria Costa.
In 2007, opium cultivation in Myanmar rose by 29 percent and opium production was up by 46 percent.
Costa said production was now concentrated in the south and east Shan states where he blamed corruption, high-level collusion and weak border security for encouraging a resurgence of the drugs trade.
KORRUPTION, SMUGLERI OG GANGSTERVÆSEN
Equally worrying was the fact that a decade of reduced opium cultivation had been offset by the emergence of a more lucrative methamphetamine trade.
Calling for greater international efforts to counter the upward trend, Costa said that ‘neglecting the greed and corruption that enable Myanmar’s drug trade will fuel crime, instability, addiction and HIV’.
Costa said poor farmers had suffered most from the program of eradication, while criminals and their cronies were continuing to profit from drug processing and trafficking.
The majority of the fields are concentrated in states along eastern Myanmar’s borders with China and Thailand, where ethnic insurgents hold sway. Those groups may be using opium sales to purchase weapons.
LOKALT FORBRUG UÆNDRET
Demand for opium among users in the region has not declined as steadily as it has in Europe, Costa added.
– Opium is still very much the drug of choice there, he said. He also pointed to corruption within the Myanmar government that allows opium to be smuggled into China, Thailand and Laos.
Kilde: www.worldbank.org
