18/01/2005 Heroin Production and Trafficking in Indo-Burma Border T. Siamchinthang Today, the Indo-Burma border is the worlds biggest heroin trafficking area and heroin is frequently described as Burmas most valuable export. Since Burmas military regime, then called the State Law and Order Restoration (SLORC), seized power in Burma in 1988, opium production, from which heroin is refined, has risen to over 2,030 metric tons annually, amounting to 60 per cent of world supply. Heroin from Burma has usually supplied the North America and Australia markets while previously most of the heroin sourced in European originated from the Golden Crescent, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Turkey. Over the past two years, a growing portion of the European heroin market has been Burmese heroin trafficked out of north-west Burma. Heroin production in northwest Burma is burgeoning and new refineries are appearing. The improvement in drug enforcement in neighbouring Thailand and China since the early 1990s has served to open up new trade routes for both raw opium and heroin from Shan State to the plains around Mandalay, through Chin State and Sagaing Division to north-east India. According to Images Asias November 2004 report, Most of Burmas opium for conversion into heroin is grown in Shan State, in the infamous Golden Triangle region. Despite the military juntas claims that they are actively combating drug production and distribution, many areas of Shan State saw massive increases in poppy cultivation after they came under the control of military regime. The Burmese military has been laying landmines in the border areas where India, Bangladesh and Burma meet since mid-1997 in an attempt to prevent militant insurgency. High-level anti-insurgency authorities from Burma and north-east India have increasingly profited from the narcotics trade, taking bribes not to send Burmese military troops into areas where refineries are located. Large amounts of narcotics are carried through official border crossings in north-east India, including at the Moreh-Tamu border point, as well as across paths over the mountains that form much of the border terrain. In north-western Burma, there are three new drug-related trends, all of which involve the participation of Burmese higher authorities. (i) Opium production is increasing in the Chin and Naga hills. (ii) Heroin refineries have been established in the north-western Burma (iii) Heroin trafficking from the Shan State through north-west Burma into north-east India is increasing dramatically. The plain areas in north-west Burma are primarily inhabited by ethnic Burmans, while the hills are settled by Nagas, Chins (who refer to themselves as Zomi) and the Kukis. Like the Zomis in Chin State, the Kukis and Nagas have formed armed resistance organizations which are fighting against the Burmese military regime for various degrees of political autonomy. There are also Nagas, Zomis and Kukis in the Indo-Burma border areas fighting for autonomous regions in India. Some insurgents are fighting for independence in territory that includes parts of Burma, India and Bangladesh. The largest Naga resistance organisation, the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) split into two factions in 1988. The faction led by Isaac-Muivah (NSCN-IM) has been especially active in Indo-Burma borderlands while the faction led by Khaplang, a Burmese Naga (NSCN-K), has in the past been more focused on fighting the Burma Army. The Zomi Re-Unification Organisation (ZRO) and its armed wing, the Zomi Revolutionary Army (ZRA), and the Kuki National Army (KNA) are also active in Chin State and north-east India. Cultivation of Opium Poppies Previously, numbers of Zomi villagers based in the Tedim area of Chin State and in Sagaing Division produced relatively significant amounts of opium. As some farmers under pressure from military extortion, forced labour and relocations find it harder and harder to survive growing ordinary crops the temptation to grow opium has increased. In northern Chin State along the Indo-Burma border, most of opium poppy fields are found around the Tedim township but there are a few optimum cultivation areas in Tonzang and Than Tlang townships. In the south, in areas such as Paletwa township, the climate is not conducive to growing opium. Opium cultivation also takes place in the Naga hills of Sagaing Division. Production of Heroin In the past, mostly opium was trafficked into north-east India. However, since heroin factories have begun to appear in Chin State and Sagaing Division in the early 1990s, locally produced opium as well as opium from Shan State are now refined in the area. According to the Geopolitical Drug Dispatch, Heroin Laboratories and drug export routes have now shifted to the south west (from Kachin State and the Chinese border). Major drug production units are now operation along the Chindwin river near the North-East India Border, under direct protection by the Burmese Army, far from zones controlled by the India North-East rebels and from the notorious Golden Triangle rather than heading up to the Chinese border, trucks leaded with raw opium and heroin began heading down the Central plain to the South around Mandalay. Shortly afterward, other sources in India reported that the north-east region of Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram were flooded with heroin. (The Geopolitical Drug Dispatch, Edition No. 24, December 2004). As reported in the Geopolitical Drug Dispatch, a string of six new refineries were identified along the Chindwin River, close to the north-east Indian border: 1) North of Singkaling Hkamti, near Tamanthi where the Burma Armys 52nd Regiment is headquartered 2) Homalin (222nd Regiment Headquarters) 3) Moreh and Kaleymyo (89th, 228th and 235th Regiment Headquarters) 4) Tedim (89th Regiment Headquarters) 5) Paletwa on the western edge of Chin and Arakan States. For the first time refineries are being established in traditionally white or areas where there is no north-east Indian rebel presence and close to major Burma Army installations. Most of the opium and heroin trafficked over these routes from Shan State enters Kalay and Tahan, a Sub-Division of Kaleymyo, where there is a heroin refinery. Observers report that in Kalaymyo, Sagaing Division, Burma Army officials have established heroin refineries inside their main military camp. According to locals, heroin produced from this refinery is sent to north-east Indian insurgents, particularly the United National Liberation Front (UNLF) and the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) in Manipur Valley, the United Liberation Front of Assam, (ULFA) and the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN)-Khaplang Faction. Trafficking Routes North-west Burma and north-eastern Indian states extend from Sagaing Division to Tamer to Manipur and Kalay/ Tedim to Mizoram. >From the main refinery at Kalaymyo, under the control of a businessman who works with well-known drug-traffickers from north-west Burma as well as the army, there are three major drug trafficking routes (see map for major routes): 1) To the north towards Khampat and Tamumoreh and from there to Imphal, Manipur 2) To the west towards Rikhawdar/ Champhai and from there to Aizawl, Mizoram 3) To the south-west towards Lunglei and continuing north to Aizawl. Other trafficking routes to Indias north-east include: 1) from Khamti area through Noklok to Magokching in Nagaland 2) from Tamanthi and Homalin to Somra and from there northwards through Jessami to Kohima in Nagaland 3) From Paletwa to Alikudam in the Chittagong Hills Track of Bangladesh, to Coxs Bazaar and Chittagong. 4) Some heroin is also trafficked over the Arakan State border into Bangladesh, then on to India. Most of the heroin trafficked to India passes through Tamu to Moreh, Chandel District of Manipur State. Within north-western Burma, heroin is often transported by the police officers, soldiers and prison guards when they are ordered to escort prisoners from their work sites back to towns. From there, large amounts of heroin are stashed in army conveys, which travel to the border avoiding inspection at the check points along the way. Moreover, the traffickers pay Burma Army officials a fee for carrying shipments and to pick-up the heroin at border towns such as Tamu. From there it is brought into India both in trucks and by individuals. Drugs coming from Burma into Manipur are mostly sent to Patna, one of the major drug distribution centres in India, and to three other distribution points; Kathmandu, Delhi and Bombay. From their, they are further trafficked on to the international market, which is now overwhelmingly reliant on Burmese heroin. Consequences The consequences for India, Burma, Bangladesh and the international community are extreme. In Burma the addiction rate has increase dramatically over recent years. The World Health Organisation believes there are over 600,000 heroin addicts in Burma, more than 2% of the population, and double this number of users of drugs. Non-government organisations working in the region believe the real number may be two or three times this again. The dire economic situation in Burma is contributing to the rise of an opium-based economy in the areas reliant not only on opium cultivation but on narcotics trade. Addiction to heroin in the north-east Indian states of Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland has skyrocketed. According to Bertil Lintner, there were 12,000 drug addicts in Burma in 1989. Two years later, there were at least 25,000 addicts. In the north-east Indian states there are more than 90,000 HIV/AIDS carriers, identified as heroin addicts who shared needles to inject their drugs. Manipur, a state of only 1.2 million people by 1992 had the highest incidence of drug-related AIDS infections in India. Conclusion There is a direct correlation between the expansion of military control in north-western Burma and the increase in the production and trafficking of drugs along the Indo-Burma border. As locals in these inter-state borderlands find it increasingly difficult to make ends meet because of extortion, forced labour, and other demands enforced on them by the Burmese military regime, they have become more willing to plant poppies. The payment of bribes to local authorities, happy to supplement their meagre income, ensures that poppies can be grown and heroin produced even in the border areas close to Burma Army bases. Drugs are transported by or with the collusion of Burma Army and intelligence personnel. Moreover, the military juntas involvement in the heroin trade is being enhanced and facilitated by the expansion of roads in the north-east India along which a growing number of army vehicles are circulating that can carry narcotics without being checked. With no concerted attempts as yet to stem the flow of narcotics through north-western Burma, the twin plagues of increased addiction and rapidly spreading HIV/AIDS continue to devastate the region. http://www.mizzima.com/archives/nf/2005/18-Jan-05-06.htm ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Give underprivileged students the materials they need to learn. 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